


Worn Roads of Time

by bleedforyou1



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Original Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 16:46:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14938106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bleedforyou1/pseuds/bleedforyou1
Summary: A beautiful tale of love, told by a grisly innkeeper.Lucas is ward of his town, has a beautiful lover and a great family. He thinks he has it all until he meets a rogue mercenary that turns his whole world upside down.





	Worn Roads of Time

Though the day was coming to a close, the sun setting and the rays no longer shining through the stained glass windows, the noise and clatter grew inside the small inn at the end of the twisting road, just at the edge of town. Such was the way of inns and taverns, anyone who was anyone knew that-- and this inn was no different. Perhaps, it was different in other ways though. 

 

The soft scratching and flicking noise of matches being struck and candle wicks sputtering to life was lost behind the noise of the tavern. There was laughter and talking, men and women carousing while they ate warm food and drank the best ale, mead, and ciders in town. It was every bit the familiar, small tight-knit world of the tavern after the sun set. The cook could vaguely be heard shouting in the kitchen to get the other scullery maids to send out the inn’s dinners. The rugged two knights that were staying on the king’s fine dollar were playing drinking games and saying things that would make the maidens of the town blush. 

But the loudest noises of all were the voices by the bar, the younger kids who were begging for the weaving of words. It was the famous stories here at the Wolf Elf Inn, that the kids would ask every night to hear. Sometimes, depending on how busy he was and what type of mood he was in, the innkeeper would tell the children to hush, then calmly tell it in a soft voice so that they would have to remain quiet to hear. Sometimes he would tell tales of knights of old, of fae and magic--of love and life and good and evil and all the things that made stories remain dear in the hearts of so many. The old innkeeper, though a sharp eye would notice he was not so old, was one of the best word weaver’s in all the kingdom and his words had such a power that even the most rambunctious of children would grow still as the words flowed over them. Often during the cold winters, the innkeeper’s stories were anticipated like a great festival.

Tonight was one such night. 

“Please, please!” A little girl pouted up at the innkeeper while he polished some glasses with a worn rag, behind the bar. He peered up at her through his thick black eyelashes and the bangs of his hair, which somehow managed to always stick up all over his head. At the sight of this small girl with big brown eyes and rosy cheeks, his heart strings plucked lightly in his chest. “Please we wanna hear a story! Tell us! Tell us your story!” 

He looked around and some of the adults around the bar kept glancing at him as well and he let out a small chuckle, rasping through his throat as though he did not laugh as often as he once did as a child.

“My story eh?” he asked gruffly, sipping on a cup of warm cider. “My story is not one to be told, but forgotten little one. Why do I not tell ye the tale of the Oak and the Bee--” 

“No!” the girl pouted, stomping her foot. “You’ve told us every story there is to tell except yours!” The kids around her voiced their agreement and Lucas snorted. Typical, he was being ganged up on by youngsters.

“What is this strange fascination with the sadness of life that all ye scampers have, eh?” He asked with his husky voice, blue eyes staring down each child with a playful but stern look. The girls giggled lightly and the boys blushed, not wanting to seem too interested in anything but insanely curious all the same. “When I was your age, I only wanted stories of adventure and bandits, enemies being vanquished, and happy endings.” 

“But what greater adventure is there than that of your own making?” A dancing voice came from behind him, music ringing in his words.

The children all erupted in cheers when a young man appeared from thin air behind the innkeeper. “Ambrose! Ambrose!” They all laughed and clapped. The known magician gave a bow and winked when his older brother turned to look at him with a mock-scowl. 

“What’re you doin’ here, ya fool?” He said gruffly, but it was highly noticeable by anyone who cared to look that the man was unbelievably happy suddenly, putting his glass and rag down to take the young man by the scruff of the neck and pull him into a hard hug. 

They hugged long before Ambrose quickly pulled away to grin at him. “I came to visit my sad old brother in his… dusty inn,” Ambrose remarked, looking around with a raised eyebrow. 

The innkeeper grabbed him again by the neck and rubbed his knuckles into his hair, grinding them down on his skull like he did when they were younger, his face seeming to come alive in a way it did not throughout the last two weeks. “Ain’t a speck of dust in the ol’ Wolf Elf, brother and don’t make me cut out yer tongue for sayin’ such things!” 

Ambrose laughed and pushed at him, pulling his arm off of him quickly and dancing away gracefully until he was behind the children and staring at his brother with a grin. “Please do tell us the story, Mister! We all wanna hear!” 

“Hush, all of ye-- if ya wanna hear the story ya know my rules, ya gotta stay quiet,” the innkeeper said with a roll of his eyes. He sighed and picked up the rag and another glass, chewing on his bottom lip and looking to think hard. 

“Perhaps another night--” Ambrose started to say, his melodious voice switching instantly to a more saddened tone. The children all started to groan in dismay, but they all went dead silent the moment the innkeeper rose his hand. 

“It’s all right,” he said softly, the youthfulness that Ambrose brought suddenly gone. It seemed as though his younger brother had cast a spell on him that could only work temporarily, doomed to fail. “I’ll tell ye the story.” 

A hush seemed to come over the entire tavern, the knights who had been drinking heavily were now drowsily looking towards the bar, the other men and women also going quiet even if they were pretending to be polite and not stareing at him. Almost everyone felt a shudder of cold creep through the normally fiery warm inn. Almost everyone, but not the innkeeper. He was always a little on the hot side, his own internal fire always warming him. It was his own version of magic, so much less than his younger brother’s, who was gifted the true power-- but there all the same. 

The innkeeper heaved a sigh and looked up at the children, then at his brother, pushing back his hair and smiling the saddest smile anyone had ever seen in town, and began to speak in a low, strong voice. 

 

At the tender age of seventeen, Lucas Emrys believed he was the happiest man in town. He had to have been, what with his new job-- not everyone could say they were the town’s youngest Warden to ever be named-- and his brother’s acceptance to becoming an apprentice for a powerful wizard, far off in a seemingly magical kingdom that no one in town had ever even been to. His parents had just opened the town’s biggest and best inn, his father having built the entire thing by himself. Though all of this was enough to make any man happy, Lucas had something not a lot of other seventeen year olds could say they truly had. He had the love of his life at his side, an honest woman full of love and care that was the most beautiful woman in the whole town. Sure, a lot of men said that about their lovers, but Lucas’s was different. He knew true love when he saw it and no one could tell him otherwise. She had him under her spell from the first day they met, as children running through the forest behind their homes. Vanessa wasn’t just a woman, she was the whole world to him, she was all he could think about most days. His life surrounded her and he was as entranced as a fly was to honey. 

Now Lucas here was an honest man, his parents had raised him right, giving him the strict lessons of always being truthful where he could, kind and strong and brave. He wanted to do right by this woman, wanted to build a home with her and marry her, but her father was the town’s butcher, a menacing man that hated Lucas. Vanessa tried to convince him, she told Lucas she did, but the man wouldn’t budge. He had promised her to another man from another town, and they would be married when Vanessa turned 18, which was in less than a year. Lucas was indeed the happiest man in town, but this one thing rankled at him. Vanessa was too good for some stranger, and although everyone told him to leave well enough alone, his parents trying to tell him that he could do better, he stubbornly refused them all. 

Vanessa had enraptured him and little did anyone else know, they had shared a few nights in the woods. Mind you, he didn’t make a dishonest woman of her or anything quite so horrendous, but they did have quite a good time those nights. No one would really say anything against a fumble in the woods at the time, but he didn’t want anyone thinking he’d defiled the town’s most beautiful woman.

“Lucas, let’s run away together,” she told him one of these nights, lying next to him on the blanket that he had brought for them both, but had folded up to allow her more comfort. 

He shook his head. “Nah, my love. We do things in an honest, open way-- no running off in the dead of the night. How could I leave me ma and pa, anyway?” 

She rolled her eyes and shoved at him. “Don’t you love me? Don’t you wanna be with me? How could you not do this one thing for me?” 

The rest of the week, these questions of hers plagued his mind. Did he really not love her enough? He knew he gave most of his money to her and he knew his parents were always telling him he did too much for not enough return, but damn it he did want to be with her. More than anything! How could he not do this for her? She was right. 

By Friday evening, Lucas was troubled sick as he walked around the town’s borders, watching for any threats to the town. As Warden, he always wanted to make sure everything was safe and sound, even if the town’s last few Wardens were usually found drunk at the tavern, he was a better one and he was going to prove it. 

The night was dark outside of town, dim flickers of light from town licking at his feet, growing weaker and weaker as he headed farther out. He liked it this way, with only the moon for company. Don’t get him wrong...he loved his girl but sometimes...feeling the sweet breeze on his face and the pale moonlight shining above--he felt a peace long sought after. Everything else in the town was constant noise--animals and people talking and chattering, the blacksmith’s hammer and the butchers knife all mixing to create a song Lucas called home. 

While he was musing on what to do and what he could possibly do to get out of the situation at hand, he almost missed the breaking of a branch on the well worn road into town. He looked up and pulled out his sword, looking around for the animal or person that had broken it. 

“Who’s there?” He called out after a few moments of no sound. “Come out here.” 

“Why, will you give me a coin for it?” A mischievous voice called out from the trees. Lucas turned to the voice and recognized it as a girl’s, but could not see its owner. “Buzz off, will you? Some people are trying to sleep around here.” 

Lucas frowned to himself and walked towards the voice. “Sleep? The town is mere yards away, why are you sleeping in the forest?” 

He walked through the trees, his leather boots making just the barest of whispers against the grass and fallen leaves and branches on the ground. Looking around, he finally saw the gleam of metal and pushed a large thicket of leaves to the side to see a dark figure huddled by the trunk of a tree. Lucas squinted in the dark and realized the girl was wrapped in thick blankets and had a rough travel sack next to her to use as a pillow. 

“Can I help you?” The girl said bluntly as Lucas walked closer. He couldn’t really see her in the dark, but he didn’t need to. 

“Yes, you can help by not sleeping outside the town. There’s an inn just a few steps away and this is no place for a girl to sleep! My father owns the inn and we’ll let you stay the night for free if you--”

“Oy!” She interrupted him, voice now fierce. “I don’t need no favors from no one-- I choose where I sleep and when, I ain’t breakin’ any rules by sleepin’ here so you can just go on and get back into your town. I’m not a threat to your little town anyway!” 

He sighed and crossed his arms, still holding the hilt of his sword. “I didn’t say you were breaking rules, I just meant--”

“Sod off, will you? I need me sleep!” 

Lucas abruptly stomped off, anger filling him at the girl’s rudeness and vulgarity and her lack of appreciation at his kindness. She could just as well freeze out there for all he cared, he was the town’s warden not the world’s, after all. Wasn’t his business to keep young women from being attacked, frozen or starved out in the middle of the forest. 

Once he got back to the road he sighed and nearly smacked himself before turning on his heel and walking quickly back through the forest and to the girl’s chosen spot. “Look will you just-- please-- for the sake of my mind, come with me to the inn? I told you-- it’ll be free if you don’t have the penny to spare--” 

“What is your bloody problem?!” She groaned and stood up. Lucas could hear the clinking of chainmail and frowned, trying to look at her through the darkness. He had never heard a woman wearing mail before. He then heard a sword being drawn from its scabbard and he jumped back a step and held his own. “You wanna taste, kid? Is that it? Feelin’ lonely and hear a woman’s voice and wanna play? You’re not gonna get anything from me but a fight in case you were wondering.” 

Lucas bristled. “L-lonely?!” He choked out. “I am not lonely! I’ll have you know my woman’s the most beautiful in town-- her skin as soft as sheer--”

“Oh dear goddess in high heavens and sea help me,” the girl snorted. “Shut up, will ye? Go back to your town, I’ll be gone in the morn’.” 

“You’ll come with me to the inn or spend the night in the town cells, understood? This is still town land, and you’re in my jurisdiction now.” 

The girl paused for a moment before replying sweetly, throwing Lucas off. “If you can beat me in a fight, I’ll go wherever you want me to go, dear sir.” 

Lucas frowned for a moment, weighing his options. His momma hadn’t raised no fool. He knew better than to take on an unknown opponent. He wanted to accept her challenge right away--his pride sparking a white hot anger inside him. And yet...his curiosity was starting to win out. Who was this mysterious girl? So he did the next best thing and plopped down. 

“I’m no fool,” Lucas said bluntly, stretching his legs out. “If ya travel you’re probably a sight better than me with a sword in the dark. And as Warden, ‘m supposed to be keepin’ travellers safe, not hurtin’ them. So if ya insist on stayin’ out here, I insist on makin’ sure ya stay safe.” 

She was quiet for a moment and then immediately went back to her spot and pulled all of her blankets back on, curling into a small ball by the base of the tree. Lucas looked at her amused for a moment before shaking his head and watching the forest, listening for any other sounds of people or danger. It was a brisk night, and Lucas had to wonder if he admired the girl for her grit at staying out or if she was as stubborn as he. Clearly, she was more so. After a few moments, the girl spoke again. 

“Is this inn of your father’s fairly busy?” She seemed hesitant and Lucas softened a bit. He realized quite belatedly that her voice sounded different, that she had a strange accent that he had not ever heard. He wondered where it was from.

“Yes… although by this time most people have probably gone up to bed.” 

She was quiet for another moment. “Will he have a bed to spare, though?” 

“He always has a bed to spare, mey pa’s never the type to turn anyone down ‘less they’re causin’ trouble.” 

“Fine,” she sighed, sitting up. “Only because I won’t be able to sleep with you sitting there breathing like a wolf next to me and I really do need sleep.” 

Lucas grinned brightly at the comment, standing up. “Ya think I’m like a wolf? That’s funny--everyone always says so. “ Lucas watched her gather her small bundle of things together and felt a strange curiosity pique up inside him. “Why do you need your sleep? Are you hurt? My mother is a healer, she could help you with anything.” 

The girl snorted again and Lucas heard the thunk of a knapsack being thrown over a shoulder and the slicing of a sword being held at one’s side. “I don’t need a healer.” He noticed she did not say that she was not hurt. She walked off without looking back at him and Lucas scrambled to keep up with her, hoping to catch a glimpse of her in the moonlight. 

“But you are hurt,” Lucas said dryly, sheathing his sword. He had always had a good gauge on people and somehow he just knew she wasn’t going to hurt him. “How did you get hurt? Is it bad? Do you require anything if you are unwilling to let someone look at it?” 

She sighed and sheathed her own sword, and he was surprised that she followed the rules of polite company and put down her weapon when the other put his own down. “It’s not bad. It’s healing right now. Couple nasty scrapes on my back and legs,” she said quickly. “It’s not anythin’ to cause a ruckus ‘bout, been through much worse.” 

When they stepped out onto the road leading to town, Lucas turned to her, seeing her in the moonlight and the light of the torch fires that he kept lit at the town’s entrance.

The chainmail she wore caught his eye first, the metal gleaming and fitting tighter to her body than that of thee knights that came into town.’s usually did. She had had it custom made then. She wore no armor, only a thick cloak around her shoulders, the hood dropped back. She was at least a foot shorter than Lucas and this made him smile for some reason. Her hair was a dark black, woven into a loose braid behind her neck. Her skin was not pale like other girl’s he had seen, but bronzed as though she worked in the fields her whole life and yet she did not have the worn look of a farmer--her skin was smooth and without flaw...it was almost as if the sun had blessed her with its light. She had an exotic presence about her, a hint of something new and exciting--his curiosity buzzed to life in his chest and Lucas smiled shyly over at her. 

He wondered again where she was from, the combination of that skin color and hair color with her features something he had never seen before. She looked up at him and he blinked when he saw how big her brown eyes were, at how her pink lips stretched into a smirk up at him, as though she were hiding a million secrets that he would never know. Such a hidden smile--it made something deep within him stir, rising up to the challenge; he wanted all her secrets and more. He wanted to know her--down to her feet--down to the marrow in her bones. He would know this woman. The thought very nearly caught him off guard. If he had been paying attention, he would have realized that not once in all his life had he wished to know Vanessa in such a way. 

Shaking off his stupor, Lucas quickly looked back at the town as they entered it, the patchy road leading way to patchy cobblestones that littered the ground instead of actually being a road. “The inn is just this way, erm--,” Lucas paused. “Sorry, I do not know your name?” 

She shook her head and looked ahead. “You have not earned my name yet.” 

He chuckled a bit. “And what must I do to earn your name, oh mighty nameless one?” 

She looked at him seriously and raised an eyebrow, her accent taking on a formal cadence as though she were reciting a lesson some scribe had taught her long ago. “Names are not a joke. It is a given path that your life will take. Giving the power of your identity to someone is a serious move, especially for one as travelled as I, with as many people who are hunting down the name which I do not think you have earned yet.” 

Lucas stopped for a moment, there in the town square on a moonlitmoon lit night and truly stared at the girl. She seemed young, almost as though she were Lucas’s age, but her words and stature made her seem older as well. Or at least more mature.

He bowed slightly, remembering with clarity long ago half-learned lessons. Her words had a weight to them, one that required respect. “My brother just left for apprenticeship--you say things he will likely learn with that man,” Lucas replied softly before straightening. “Very well then--a nickname then? Or shall I make up a name for you?” 

She lost some of her seriousness and let out the smirk again, amused by him. Normally that would bother him, but at the moment it made him a bit… happy actually. “I’m curious as to hear what type of name you would make up for me.” 

“My first guess was Stella...but it doesn’t seem to fit you,” he said softly. “It means star--or firefly if you will. And you are certainly a spark this dark moon lit night. “ Lucas looked around, thinking long and hard, using it as an opportunity to inspect her more carefully. He looked over at the sign for the inn, barely to be seen in the darkness and smiled slightly. “Your name,” he declared. “Shall be Tesni Satu.” He grinned at his secret words, proud of this moment. “Though that is the shortened version.” 

She tilted her head to look at him and he got a lot of triumph out of the curiosity burning in her eyes. “And what does that mean? And what is the long version?” 

“Well…who am I to tell you the fullest of your self?” Lucas grinned. “A name has much power after all.” 

She rolled her eyes at him and he grinned even impossibly wider. “That’s not my birth name, it doesn’t count. Tell me what it is before I get angry!" 

“Easy there! I don’t take kindly to threats!” Lucas laughed brightly, watching her with a happiness fierce in its strength. “It means fae of the sun. And your full name is Tesni Siofra Satu--Warrior of the sun fae.” 

She bit her lip and he noticed the smile and he really wanted to see it in it’s full effect but took what he got. “I’m no fae. Though, yes, I am a warrior.” She messed with the hair that covered her ears and seemed to look sheepish. “Now where is this inn? I’m exhausted.”

Lucas walked forward, leading her through the town and up to the inn, the chandelier in the tavern and the roaring fire illuminating the stained glass windows that he had grown to love about this place. His mother had chosen them, had painted the design of the roses in and he and his brother had watched his father putting them in himself. 

“Welcome to the Rosewood Inn, Tesni,” Lucas chuckled, opening the door and letting her in. She seemed cautious, looking around and he stepped in behind her, closing the door so that none of the chill would get in. He looked at her again, this time in full lighting. She had dirt scuffs on her face, her eyelashes were long and black, framing her eyes well. He could not help but notice that her neck was slender and lead to a rather full body that he had only recently started to appreciate-- not that he was staring at her body or anything. Her fists were clenched in leather gloves and her knapsack looked worn, as did her cloak. She had a wild look about her, tensed and ready to bite at the slightest insult. Lucky for him, Lucas had always been a bit wild himself--he knew how to work with someone spooked; animal and human alike. 

“Are you hungry? There’s always warm good food--” 

“No thank you,” she said quickly, holding her knapsack closer to herself. “Not right now. Can I just-- can I have the bed for the night?” 

He nodded and lead her past the bar and towards the back hall, looking around to watch out for his parents, one of which must have been awake if the front door was unlocked. They had made it to the door of a room Lucas knew was always empty because his father saved it for minstrels he actually liked that came to town. 

“It’s a beautiful inn,” the girl whispered, looking around and letting her gloved hands touch the door, carved from a dark wood. “Your father must be a master carpenter.” 

Lucas nodded and let pride flourish his smile. “He is-- best in the whole kingdom, I’d say. It’s named after the wood that he used--Rosewood. It’s notoriously difficult to work with--but that’s me Pa for ye.” 

She smiled slightly and was about to say something else when footsteps came from behind them and Lucas turned to see his parents coming down the hall, eyebrows raised at him. The girl took a step back behind him and he saw her clenching her fist on the hilt of her sword, though she did not pull it out of it’s scabbard for which he was thankful. 

“Mother, father--” 

“Lucas, what are you doing here? Is everything all right?” His mother asked him, her long brown hair in a messy braid and a thick shawl wrapped around her. He smiled at how worried she sometimes got over every little thing. 

“Everything’s fine, Ma! This is a traveller I found in the woods just now and I invited her to stay here the night.” 

His father seemed to be weighing the woman in his eyes and he smiled at her. “May I have a name, Miss?” 

The girl next to him shifted and looked apprehensive. “I’m… I’m just passing through town-- I’m afraid I don’t have any money at the moment though I swear I won’t take up much time or ask for anything other than a bed--” 

“Oh lass, I won’t ask ya for any money, was just hopin’ for a name to call ye by when I wake ya in the morn’ for breakfast,” his pa chuckled. “Suit yerself, I know givin’ a name is not so easy for some. You come down to the tavern for meals, ya understand? Only way I’ll accept ye in our inn.” 

The girl surprised Lucas by bowing her head to his parents. “Thank ya so much for yer kindness, mye lord and lady--” 

“We’re not lords or ladies at all, dear--” His mother said quickly, blushing. She waved her off with a delicate toss of her hand and his father wrapped his arm around her shoulders with another chuckle.

“Everyone with a kind heart is a lord and lady in my mind,” the girl replied easily, smiling slightly. “If you’ll excuse me, I really must lie down--” She suddenly lurched, eyes fluttering closed and leaning a hand against the door to the room and Lucas’s eyes widened, his hands hovering over her uselessly. 

“Oy, you all right?” He asked her, his heart suddenly picking up in it’s pace oddly. 

“I’m fine-- I just--” Her eyes were dazed when she forced them open, leaning heavily against the wall now. 

“Oh dear,” his mother said, rushing over and opening the door for her, helping her inside. Lucas’s arms dropped to his side helplessly and he followed them inside, at least helping by pulling the covers back on the small bed in the corner. “Whatever is the matter, lass? Tell me now, ‘m a healer-- and no lies, ya hear?” 

The girl sat heavily on the bed, cringing hard. “It’s-- t’s just me back and legs. I fixed most of ‘em meself but I just need sleep…” 

“How long has it been since you’ve eaten? Real food?” His mother asked her quickly and helped her take the knapsack, her belt and cloak off. Lucas turned away with his father, a bit of heat rising to his cheeks. 

“Now Lucas,” his mother tutted, “I’ll be needin’ your help now son, I already sent sweet Lisa home.” 

“It’s really all right, Miss no need to trouble anyone ‘bout it. Plus I got plenty of food in me sack and in the woods.” 

“First off, my name is Helen and that’s what you’ll call me, dear,” his mother said and pulled open the laces of her knapsack while shaking her head. “And stale bread and berries is not enough real food with an injury on ye. Balinor, go fetch the girl a bowl of hot soup and real bread and butter along with me healer kit.” 

His father nodded and quickly walked off, his large figure impressively scurrying under his wife’s tight command. Lucas chortled for a moment before realizing his mother was now helping the girl out of her chainmail and she was wearing not but a breezy white tunic that was practically see through in the candlelight of the small room. Lucas felt unbearably hot suddenly, coming to stand by his mum and help her set the chainmail down. Rather than be caught staring, he busied himself with looking at the chainmail. 

It was like nothing he had ever seen. It seemed solid enough, links of fine silvery-white woven together with no noticeable smelting lines. While clearly old and very well worn, it still had a bit of a glisten to it--and was the lightest piece of armor he had ever felt, though he held no doubt in his mind that it would turn away a sword as easily as anything. It didn’t seem like normal metal and he frowned. “What type of metal is this?” 

“Not one you’d see around here,” she said gruffly and he looked back before quickly glancing away, as his mother now had the back of her shirt raised up. 

“What in the world happened?!” Helen said and Lucas prepared himself for the scolding voice. “Did you get scratched by an animal of some sort?” 

The girl nodded and bit her lip hard, clearly in pain. “Last man had a bear with him. A smaller one mind you but that’s what made the pay higher-- animal had protected him for years, was actually sad to kill it considering it wasn’t the animal’s fault.” 

Helen gasped slightly and sat down on the bed next to her. “You fought a-- a bear?! And lived? What man? Are you--” She shook her head then. “Nevermind all of that for now, show me the rest of the cuts and we’ll get some medicine on them and bandage them up.” 

Lucas gaped, his modesty forgotten for now as he sat down next to her. “You really fought a bear? You must be a good fighter indeed then, I am glad I did not accept your challenge, Tes.” 

Helen looked at him oddly for a moment but he ignored it when the girl snorted. “The bear was a bit of a hiccup, the three men that fought alongside it was where the problem happened-- can’t dodge all of it I suppose,” the girl shrugged then winced. 

Balinor walked back into the room with a large tray and a bag hanging on his arm. He blushed slightly and Lucas grinned-- he definitely got his modesty from his Pa. “Here ya are, lass-- and did I hear ye right from outside, a bear?! Three men? Ye a mercenary, are ye?” 

The girl nodded and looked up at him. “I understand if that changes your mind-- I can go back to the forest--” 

“Nonsense! Ye don’t seem the type to cause trouble in me inn and besides, yer in no fit state to be goin’ anywhere,” he said gruffly, putting the tray down and handing Helen the bag. “I’m gonna go call on a maid to get ya some cleaner clothes, Miss.” He said with a respectful nod and left. 

Helen quickly got to work, laying out thread and a bone needle, bringing out a small stone pestle and beginning to grind up the herbs needed to make an ointment. 

“Lucas,” she said, “Why don’t you stitch up her cuts while I work on this.” Without giving him a chance to reply, Helen turned back to t he girl. “I’m making an ointment of thyme, rosemary and moss, it will help kill the infections and heal them up properly.” Helen looked up, raising an eyebrow. “Will that be a problem?” Lucas chuckled and shook his head--his Ma sure did know how to boss even the most stubborn of people around. 

The girl nodded. “I couldn’t find rosemary of my own, been usin’ the moss and thyme mixed with some alcohol.” She sighed and started to struggle off her trousers, a slight pink on her cheeks. “I’ve got a couple on the fronts of my thighs and my right knee as well. They’re not as bad so won’t need stitching.” 

Lucas sighed in slight relief and shifted back on the bed to look at her back, hissing under his breath. Her skin was bronzed and beautifully smooth other than the deep angry red scratches that marred them. There were three big ones and two small ones, the perfect width of a bear’s claw scratching down someone’s back. He cleaned his fingers with the rubbing alcohol his mother always kept in her bag and he carefully dabbed a piece of clean cloth into it as well. “This will sting a lot,” he said softly, taking a deep breath himself before beginning to clean off the wounds, where the blood had started to seep out of the cuts. There were traces of green moss and he wondered how in the world she had even reached back there enough to put the moss there. She didn’t make a sound or even flinch as he cleaned them and he glanced a look at her face, biting his lip when it was completely impassive, her eyes closed. Her jaw did jump where he assumed she was gritting her teeth and her hands clenched still in their worn leather gloves.

“Okay… I think that’s as clean as I can get ‘em, whatdya think Mum?” 

Helen glanced over and frowned before nodding. “Yes, that is good, now stitch as much as you can. Remember-- clean even stitching and pull the skin taut so it will stay but not too tight or they could rip easily.” 

He nodded and tried to pull the thread through the needle, focusing and cursing his thick and rough calloused fingers from helping his father build. “Mum, I can’t--”

“Here,” the girl said suddenly, eyes opening and reaching back to grab the needle and thread from his hands. He watched as she raised it to eye level and easily looped the thread through as though she were pushing a string through a giant ring. He pouted slightly as she handed it back to him but quickly got to work stitching her cuts, trying not to stare at the way her lithe muscles rippled and flexed under her skin, the shoulder blades sharp under his hand. 

“Try and focus on the food,” Helen’s voice cut through his thoughts as she spoke to the girl. “You need to eat.” 

The girl nodded shakily and put the bread in the honey and butter and ate it quickly as though she hadn’t eaten real warm food in a long time. Lucas admired her ability not to scream and thrash as he sewed her up, just barely wincing. The first time he had split open his arm in a fight with a local boy, he had wriggled and thrashed so much his father and brother had to hold him down and make him bite down on a leather glove. 

And Vanessa had cried and screamed, and then ignored him for a week during his medical training when he had given her two stitches when her father’s knife cut her. 

The girl was calm and silent, eating quickly and easily while Lucas finished up her stitching. He counted them and shook his head-- 25 stitches total, and the girl hadn’t had a tear or shout even once. 

“Are you even human?” He joked. “How did you go through all that without a sound?” 

She swallowed down the spoonful of hot soup in her mouth and shook her head. “I’m used to it. Plus pain only has the effect you let it have on you. I have tough skin.” 

“Indeed, but one does not dally when it comes to cuts this deep,” Helen tsked and then pulled out another clean cloth, pressing it into the mixture she just made and slowly put it on her skin. Lucas regretted that he had finished stitching so quickly, his gaze unable to stop from travelling down her slim legs, her feet propped on the knapsack and stretched out. There were indeed scratches on her thighs and her knee, but they weren’t as bad as on her back. If Lucas was a lesser man, he’d say horrible things about how beautiful her legs were and how much he’d want to kiss up them and even-- 

Lucas quickly shook his head and stood up, clearing his throat. “Mum, I really gotta get back to the town’s entrances-- It’s late in the night and there could be more people.” 

Helen nodded absently, busy with the ointment and bandages. “Okay son, come back when your shift is over and sleep then have breakfast with us. Be safe, darling.” 

He nodded and then looked down at the girl, who was glancing up at him through her lashes. “I’ll be back,” he said quickly. 

“Okay. I--” The girl looked down and he thought she may be blushing. “Thank you, very much, Lucas.” 

He cleared his throat yet again and tucked his fingers tightly into his belt. “Of course.” He left the room and closed the door behind him, leaning against it for a moment, his brain feeling overwhelmed with the amount of emotion and surprises of the last hour or so. He tried to clear his thoughts, but all he could see were big brown eyes, scratches on skin and hearing Vanessa’s voice, ringing in his ears. Why did Vanessa’s voice sound so much more like brass now that he had heard Tesni’s flute? 

Shaking his head he blearily pushed off the door and walked down the hall and out to the bar, grabbing a bottle of cider behind the bar and pouring himself just a swallow in a mug and sighed. He gulped it and put the mug back down on the bar, running his hands through his hair and rubbing his face tiredly. 

Nothing was supposed to change, he wasn’t even sure why it had. He had been in love with Vanessa for years and now the first strange girl to cop an attitude with him makes him forget that? No. He was made of sterner stuff. This girl was just a curiosity--nothing more. This was a test--that’s it--a test to prove to everyone that he truly did love Vanessa. As he headed out of the inn and into the night, Lucas ignored the small voice inside of him that asked why he felt the need to prove himself. 

\-- 

The Wolf Elf Inn was nearly silent compared to the rush of noise from earlier. The only sounds were the cracking and spitting of the fire in the hearth, the clink of glasses as people drank and the deep voice of the innkeeper telling the tale. He had paused and took a long drink of cider, a spicy apple drink that he had not liked before he was seventeen, when she had introduced it to him. Yet now it was all he drank if he did drink. He looked haggard and rough around the edges now and the children were beginning to feel very guilty for making the man tell this story for all the pain it put him through. His brother watched him carefully and was now walking behind the bar and taking the man by the shoulders. 

“Come, sit by the fire, you look as though a stiff wind could push you over,” Ambrose said softly in his ear so that no one else could hear. 

The Innkeeper snorted slightly but moved sluggishly, putting the mug of apple cider down. He walked with Ambrose tiredly over to the fire and collapsed heavily into it, the worn leather making a stretching noise before quieting under his body. Ambrose sat down next to him at the edge of another chair and the children all quietly walked over and sat on the ground by the Innkeeper’s feet. The other adults shifted a bit but said nothing, watching the man apprehensively and curiosity. Ambrose kept looking over at his brother, eyes shining with something impossible to judge. His fingers seemed to twitch restlessly in his lap, something folk mostly associated with him being a member of Arcanum. Who knew what miracles he could perform--what secrets his eyes had seen? 

“You don’t have to tell the rest, mister,” the little girl who had been begging the most whispered from his right hand side. 

He chuckled a bit as he looked down at her. “A wordweaver always finishes his story if he knows the ending. And this… sweet child, is not a happy ending.” He cleared his throat and sat back, looking into the fire, his voice bittersweet as he continued his tale. 

 

\-- 

 

The next morning, the lad had decided to sleep in a bit, having been quite productive in making the rounds after dawn. He woke late into the day, his room in the inn one of the few that had a sundial in it. He sat up and listened carefully, head tilting as he closed his eyes, focusing on the noises he loved that came from the inn. The air was thick with the smell of baking bread, spiced cider, and the stew the cook was preparing for dinner. He heard the sounds of loud voices talking over one another, plates clinking and the heavy thunk of mugs on wood. Lucas nodded to himself, knowing that breakfast time was thankfully not yet over. 

Stretching, he watched the dust dance merrily in the sun beams--and just like that an image of Tes arose in his mind. It made him smile, seeing the dust dart about like fairies--he wondered if she really did approve of his name. And while he was thinking about her...was she okay? Was she even still in the inn? He hoped so. The curious hunger from last night had stayed with him, and in his mind a thousand questions waited. 

He was a quick one at the time, could be up and out of his room within five breaths, not one to lounge unless it was a holiday of some sort. He stood at the door to Tesni’s room and listened inside and could hear nothing so he walked down the hall and into the tavern, looking around to see his mother and father sitting down next to the girl. 

With a wry smile, he walked over. “Good morning,” he said softly, sitting down at the table.

“Ah me lad, how’d the rest of yer night go?” Balinor asked gruffly, handing him a full plate and a large glass of juice. 

“Oh it was all right, pa,” Lucas said, looking up at the girl, who looked… she looked-- well… She was clean now, all of the dirt gone from her face and hair and clothes. She wore her hair up in a braid again and a soft cotton shirt that was far too big for her. She smiled at him slightly between bites and he found himself smiling widely back.

“So how are you?” Lucas asked her carefully, wanting to seem more than casual-- aloof even. 

She shrugged lightly and then smiled at Helen and Lucas was not jealous at all, for his mother getting a smile out of the girl where he couldn’t.

“Your mother helped me so much-- as did you, of course-- and I think I’ll definitely be feeling back to myself soon.” 

“Yes, but you’ll be stayin’ here until then, I won’t hear any ifs or buts about it,” Helen said briskly, handing the girl more juice. “Drink this dear you look white as a sheet.” 

The girl let out a laugh and looked startled with herself. “I-- I’m not--” She laughed again and his mother and father joined in and Lucas was sitting there blankly wondering why in the world the girl’s laughs sounded like music-- that shouldn’t happen right? “I’ve never been called white as a sheet before that’s for sure.”

“Staying here?” Lucas blinked. He didn’t know if he could handle more time with this girl-- no, of course he could, he didn’t feel threatened in his love for Vanessa at all. 

“Your father said if I could help around the place-- some days in the kitchen, some helping your mum and some at the bar-- then I could stay here without paying,” she said, seeming anxious about the ordeal and kept glancing at his father. “Normally I wouldn’t have a problem paying or anything like that-- I’m just between jobs and I had to leave the other kingdom--”

“Where are you from?” Lucas asked, interrupting her. His mother swatted at him for the interruption but didn’t say anything-- he knew she was curious too.

“I’m from the far east, past the great ocean and mountains. I travelled from kingdom to kingdom,” the girl said lightly as though she were only discussing the weather not the fact that she was the only person in this entire kingdom that had probably seen the mountains and lived to tell the tale.

“Past the… past the great ocean? The mountains? Lass… are ye sure?” Balinor was sitting back and looking at her with wide eyes and a careful stare. Lucas tried not to bounce in his seat like a child--but the questions! If he had a thousand before, each one just spawned a thousand more. 

“Yes, it has been a long time since I have seen where I was from-- years and years have past,” she said softly, shaking her head. “I left there with my uncle when I was only… nine. I was so busy learning everything he could teach me about fighting and life that I scarcely noticed how very far we did manage to travel.”

“Where is your uncle now?” Lucas found himself asking and then immediately regretted it. Her face fell and the warmth in her brown eyes turned cold as steel. He was stupid--he knew she was flighty--what possessed him to be so daft?

“He died. Like my parents. I picked up as much as I could, and now here I am,” she said briskly, going back to her food and eating quickly.

Helen shook her head and gently spoke to her as one speaks to a small bird in their palm. “I’m sure you have lots of amazing stories to tell-- we love stories here in the Inn.” 

The girl softened only slightly and nodded. “Wordweaving. I don’t do it very often unless it’s to teach caution and respect.” 

Lucas hadn't ever heard storytelling be called wordweaving before. He liked it. 

“Well lass I want ya to stay here awhile and teach us whatcha can then,” Balinor said in a booming voice and clapped Lucas’s shoulder. “Heaven knows Lucas here could learn some,” he laughed. 

Lucas relaxed slightly when the girl smiled a bit. “Pa!” Lucas shoved at his arm half-heartedly. The girl was watching him closely and he didn’t want to seem… he didn’t really know why he cared what she thought of him, but he just did. He wanted to impress her and show her his life and learn so much from her. He wanted the coldness to slide off her and the warmth to fill her up-- he wanted to ask her what her true name was, how she became a mercenary of all things. He wanted to show her his own special piece of him that people so rarely knew about, his own burning insides-- 

“Perhaps you both could tend to the garden today it’s been not as chilly out this morning--” Helen was saying before a large clattering noise erupted by the door. They all turned to see an older man being shoved away and a small woman coming inside, wrapped up in a mink coat. Lucas stood up immediately, his body springing to action. 

“Vanessa,” he said quickly, walking over to her as though dragged by a magnet that he couldn’t resist when he wanted to. He took in her pale figure with her wild black hair and felt his whole body melt, his heart reminding him why he was so very in love with this beautiful woman. He took her into his arms and hugged her close to him. “I’ve missed you so very much my dear, my love, my--”

“All right, Lucas,” she said, pushing at him and then fixing her hair and coat. “Where were you last night? I heard something happened. Tell me.” 

The words were blurting out of his mouth before his brain could even catch up with him. “Oh I just found a girl in the woods, she’s a mercenary and won’t tell me her name. She has scratches everywhere, she fought a bear! She’s not from around here at all she has different skin and hair and stuff and she’s kinda rude but it’s kinda funny. She’s from past the oceans and mountains and--” 

“What?” Vanessa hissed at him, pushing at him slightly again and looking past his shoulder, eyes narrowing and looking through the tavern. 

In his haste to tell Vanessa everything, he did not realize how loudly he was speaking. When he turned himself to look back, his parents and the girl were staring at him in shock from their table. The girl seemed angry beyond belief and she quickly slipped out of her chair and strode out of the tavern without a glance back. Lucas tilted his head, confused by the reaction. Why did the girl seem angry? Was it because he told everyone what she was saying? How could that be a bad thing, Lucas was jealous of how exciting her life sounded.

“You spent the night talking to some other girl?” Vanessa was hissing at him but Lucas was shaking his head and about to explain when he saw and heard his parents.

His mother sighed and tossed her napkin into her plate and rose, looking at Balinor. “He’s your son when he makes mistakes like that,” she said and rolled her eyes, picking up the plates and heading to the kitchen.

Balinor shook his head and got up as well, helping the clean-up and not saying anything to Lucas or Vanessa. 

“Lucas!” Vanessa hissed and dragged his attention back. When he looked down at her, he smiled widely. God he loved this woman, how could he ever think for even a moment that he did not? Her skin was fair with ruddy cheeks from the cold outside, her lips were plump and pink and her eyes were small and a flat green. That’s what he truly liked anyway. How could anyone not choose her? She was the perfect woman. She cared for him and loved him, cared about he was saying--she was safe and sweet, the perfect girl for him. 

“I”m sorry my lover, I was momentarily lost in your beauty,” Lucas found himself saying. “How can I help you this beautiful morning, my lady?” 

Vanessa sniffed slightly and tugged his arm. “Come away with me today. Let’s go riding or something. You’re mine and I’m yours.” 

Whenever she said that, something clicked inside Lucas and his brain went numb and he always had to say it back. “I’m yours and you’re mine.” 

She smiled at him and he smiled at her and she told him to pack a picnic basket and follow her out to the stables. 

He did so, sparing just the barest of thoughts to Tesni and wondering why she had run off like that.

\-- 

That night, when Lucas had dropped off Vanessa in her home and was coming back to the Inn to change for his night shift, he was surprised to see his mother was furious with him. She would not speak to him as he came in to eat and he frowned and took her by the shoulders after a few minutes of this. 

“Mother? What is going on? What have I done to make you so angry with me?” 

She shook her head. “You brought a woman to this Inn last night, who was injured severely and trusted you with keeping her identity-- she told you that she was sought after--”

“She never gave me her name and so I never told anyone it--”

“You told Vanessa that she was a mercenary! Do you know how mercenaries are treated?! Especially in small towns like ours?! “ His mother hissed. “And you blurted it out in front of the entire tavern! Regardless, despite that-- you leave her through the day not stopping in once to make sure if she’s alright or has eaten or is healing--” 

“Mother,” Lucas said exasperatedly, ignoring the small part of guilt that was growing inside of him. “She’s a grown woman, a mercenary-- sorry if I thought she could take care of herself for the day! She had an Inn full of people looking after her--” 

“Yes well now she doesn’t.” 

Lucas frowned. “What? What does that mean?” 

“She left two hours ago. She only let me pack her full of supplies and food but she insisted that she had to go to the castle to the King to receive another assignment.”

“She’s… she’s gone? Already? She just-- Why did she leave?!” Lucas was furious. “Is she begging for attention?!” 

“No, quite the opposite,” Helen said with a cold voice. “She did not want any harm to come to this family so she left before the town could find out that a foreign injured mercenary woman was living here.” 

“That’s-- that’s ridiculous!” Lucas spluttered. “I’m the town’s warden! I would have protected this family or her from any--”

“Wouldn’t it have been nice if you were here to tell her that?” Helen rolled her eyes and left the kitchen after handing him a bowl of stew and a piece of bread. 

Lucas stood there dumbfounded for a moment before growling and chewing the bread as he walked out to the stables. If she was already two hours ahead of him on foot on the King’s Road, he’d have to ride fast to catch her before she made it too much further.

It was in an hours time that Lucas spotted another village and he slowed down his horse and looked around for a trace of the girl. He was about to start shouting “Tesni!” very loudly before he spotted a cloaked figure on the outskirts of the town. 

He dismounted and walked his horse down the road, frowning when he saw the figure dart into the trees. “Tesni? Is that you?” He asked aloud, following her into the trees, his hand on the hilt of his sword. 

“That’s not my name,” she growled from behind the leaves of a large willow tree. The strings of the willow cloaked her easily in the darkness and Lucas glossed his hand over the soft branches, smiling despite himself. 

“What is your name then?” He asked her again, allowing her to hide behind the willow’s curtain. 

“Like I would tell you-- as though you haven’t blurted enough out. What are you even doing here?” She sounded like a kicked kitten and he had to bite his lip to keep from chuckling. 

“I’m here to bring you back. You running away has in no way deterred my curiosity and us Emrys men are ones to always chase the questions we seek. Now stop this charade and come back with me, it’s late and I must get back to my Warden duties,” Lucas said strongly, hoping his confidence would prove something to her. 

“You’re Warden?” She laughed suddenly. “They let you be Warden-- and what, was your woman’s father the town’s govern that he just appointed you as Warden?” 

Lucas frowned heavily. “Now see here-- I’ll take a few insults as I did come here to apologize for not seeing to you today, but I won’t take any on Vanessa or her father’s behalf--” 

“Oh shove it!” She snorted. “I don’t need to hear a second more of this. Go back to your town and wish your parents well, I am moving on, as mercenaries do.” 

Lucas sighed and pushed the willow branches to the side, walking in and seeing her sitting against the trunk, mouthing at a long pipe in her hands. 

“Tesni, please, I’m apologizing. I won’t tell anyone anything and I don’t want you to leave our town yet. Take the deal my parents made with you, it is an honorable way to do things.” 

She sat and watched him, smoking her pipe and then shook her head. “I do not need anyone and it would be much more honorable for your parents to not suffer under the cruel things people say about harboring mercenaries.” 

“No one will say anything-- I am town Warden and my father is master carpenter, my mother is one of the best healers. The town loves us, do no leave on our account.” 

 

“Besides,” she said almost sweetly and Lucas was slightly afraid now. “Won’t your woman be displeased if I were to stay in arm’s reach of you? Wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to your happy coupling.” 

Lucas sighed and shook his head. “It does not matter. I am a faithful man and Vanessa will just have to deal with you being there.” He surprised himself-- he had not ever said something of the sort when it came to his beloved. “Besides,” he admitted. “She’s gone tomorrow morning to a few towns over, with her relatives and to… get acquainted with her fiance, apparently.” He swallowed hard and sighed. 

“Fiance?” The girl asked, looking up at him now. 

“She has been engaged to marry a different man since she was a child-- on her father’s command.” 

“And yet you are still with her. Do you not see something… wrong… with that?” 

Lucas glared slightly at the ground. “I just need a bit more time to convince her father. That’s all. She’s not scheduled to marry until next springtime anyway.” 

“I see. Fantastic-- not just a sorry lover but a hopeless one as well.” She snorted. 

Lucas rolled his eyes and chose to ignore that comment. “That was the reason for our spending time together today-- she wanted to spend today with me because she would be gone for a while. Now, will you please come back to town?” 

The girl was silent for a while before she stood up and grabbed her bag, snuffing out the pipe with the stopper and putting it into her bag. “I’m only coming back to thank your mother and father and to help them around the Inn because I said I would. I’m not coming back for you or your curiosities.” 

Lucas grinned and nodded. “Of course. So long as you do come back.” 

He helped her onto the back of his horse as he sat in front and he couldn’t help but smile a little when he felt her gloved hands holding the saddle instead of him, as any other maiden would do. She was stubborn, he’d give her that-- but he was too. 

\-- 

When they got back to the Inn, his mother was sitting by the fireplace knitting while his father was carving something. Lucas ushered the girl in and sat her down by the fire. She glared at him slightly but smiled at his parents. 

“I brought her back-- I’m not a horrible person-- Mother forgive me now please--” Lucas said urgently as he ran to the kitchens and fetched a tray of food and brought it back to the girl, putting it down on her lap. 

His mother laughed slightly and shook her head and his father guffawed next to her. “Such a mother’s boy, lad!” He said with a booming voice. The other patrons in the tavern laughed as well but Lucas didn’t care because the girl was chuckling a bit too. 

“Yes well, perhaps I’ll forgive you tomorrow provided you help in the kitchens. Winter is coming and we’ll be needing all the help we can get with how many bards will be travelling through town on their way to the castle.” 

Lucas nodded and grinned slightly at Tesni. “I’ll be seeing you tomorrow morn’ then, Tesni,” he said, about to turn on his heel to leave when he heard her speak softly behind him. 

“My name is Mia,” she said. He turned to look at her seriously as she looked at his parents then him. “My name is Mia, and I’m honored you’ve let me stay.” 

“Aye lass,” Helen smiled at her. “We’re pleased to meet ya.” 

“And it’s our honor,” Balinor chuckled, going back to his carving that seemed to be a bow of some sort. Lucas wondered absently why he was making another-- they already had so many. 

“Mia,” Lucas said just as softly. “I will try to never betray you again.” 

“See that you don’t,” she said with a real smile and a small sparkle of fire in her eyes. 

He saw that fire through the night and it kept him warmer than his own inner fires. 

\--

Vanessa was gone from town for about three months and during that time, Lucas had never experienced the amount of confusion and, well, peace actually in his life. Though Vanessa was the love of his life, he could not for sure now say that she had ever made him as happy as he was now. 

The days seemed to fly by and there were glimpses of doubt that Lucas wrestled with internally. 

He would wake late in the morning, go down to eat breakfast with his parents and Mia, seeing her change before his very eyes. She had been quiet and guarded for the first few days, her eyes calculating when it came to him, warm when she laughed, troubled when new people came into the tavern, and bright when she was talking to Helen or Balinor. 

Lucas had convinced her during midday when the tavern had nothing else to do, to come out on a walk to the market with him. She hesitated but came with him, following him with her hand on the hilt of her sword always. 

“How do you fight so well? Being… a young girl? How old are you anyway? And why don’t you stay in one place if you don’t really like to be a mercenary--” 

“Lucas,” she chuckled a bit and he grinned. He liked when she laughed. But he just had so many questions. 

“Age and gender have almost nothing to do with skill, other than just how much work you are willing to put into it and what type of technique you can use to most accurately make the kill-- I mean win the fight. You don’t necessarily have to kill,” she paused and looked away at that. “But regardless-- I’m 18 years of age this winter, I was born the night after Winter Solstice.” 

Lucas nodded. “I turn 18 two span after you then.” 

“There are a lot of reasons why I travel-- and really, I don’t mind being a mercenary. Fighting is what I do best… and I feel restless if I stay in one place too long. Besides, most people don’t know what to do with me so I just try and stay out of the way for the most part.” 

“But don’t you feel bad for killing people?” Lucas asked hesitantly. 

“I do,” she said softly. “I really do and I try and make sure I have proof of the man’s evils before I kill them and most of them are indeed horrendously evil… But once I did have to kill an innocent man. I can say it is difficult to sleep at night with blood on your hands, but that is the price you take for not being heartless. Most mercenaries are heartless… I consider myself more of an assassin or-- vigilante almost? I don’t know… It’s difficult to trace back to where it began and why I chose this path other than… I burned with a desire for revenge of the murders of my family and then of my uncle-- I had no other desire than to kill as many people as I could… Now, now I have little else to do…” 

He was surprised to hear her speak for so long, he had not heard more than a few words at once from the girl but he wanted to strike while the iron was hot. 

“How did your parents and uncle die? Did someone murder them on purpose?” 

“They died to protect me,” she said softly. “They died because my mother was not supposed to marry my father-- because people always hate what they don’t understand.” 

 

“Why wasn’t she supposed to--”

“That’s enough questions for now,” she said quickly and then pulled out her sword. “I believe I’ll go practice some swordsmanship in the forest now.” 

Lucas wasn’t going to pass that up for sure. “Can I come? Will you practice with me?” 

She gazed at him for a moment before nodding. “Don’t whine if you get hurt though.” 

“I will not!” He glared slightly. “I don’t whine.” 

Watching her with a sword was like watching a troupe’s most acrobatic dancer dance. She was quick on her feet and made little mistakes and when she did make a mistake, she went through the same routine over and over again. It was a type of swordplay Lucas had never seen before but he had heard the warriors of the far east were like this-- serpents in the sand, one bard used to sing. 

“Do you want to spar?” She asked him lightly, using her sleeve to wipe some sweat off her brow. He had to say-- for an injured girl, she was… ridiculously good. He was ashamed to admit he was a bit scared to fight her-- he didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of her. 

“I know the result of a sparring--you would defeat me soundly, “ Lucas said with only a hint of embarrassment touching his cheeks. “Would you show me the drill you just went through? I have never seen it before.” 

She smiled lightly and walked towards him. “It is not a drill… I do not do drills. I dance,” she said with a slight smirk. “Each dance comes with a certain amount of steps. Learn to dance and your fight will be fun, not difficult.” 

Lucas frowned. “Okay… teach me to dance then.” 

She nodded and showed him how she held her sword, a grip vastly different from how he had learned, growing up. Her touch was soft even through the worn leather gloves and he realized he had yet to see her hands. She spoke gently to him which was so surprising considering her usual snarky comments through the days she had been there. He learned the grip easily and then it came to stances, then movements. He was clumsy at first but he kept trying and he got it sooner than she expected if the surprise on her face was anything to come by. His wounded pride healed a bit at that. 

“Here, there’s a river nearby that we can refresh ourselves with,” he said after some time, seeing her weariness and the way she reached back to touch her injured back. 

“Okay,” she said easily, following him through the forest and towards the river. He took off his shirt, soaked with sweat, and knelt down, splashing his face with the water and drinking some as well. 

She seemed to hesitate and then came closer, kneeling next to the water and taking off her gloves slowly before quickly dipping her hands into the water. Lucas tried not to stare but he couldn’t help it. 

Her fingers were unnaturally long and thin, not just feminine but almost inhumanely delicate and her nails seemed immaculate, straight and clean as though she polished them all night. There was not a hint of any callouses or scrapes, her knuckles were not even slightly bent as all swordsmen’s are. Lucas found himself gawking and his mother would have smacked him if she had been there. 

“You’re too obvious,” she said softly. “A good fighter is not that obvious.” 

Lucas blinked and snapped himself out of it. “Your hands… they’re-- I just haven’t ever seen a fighter’s hand look so…” 

“If you say delicate, I’ll crush you,” she muttered, holding a rock from the river in her hands and clenching around it. Lucas actually thought she would crush it for a moment before shaking his head, knowing that was ridiculous. 

“No, just… unblemished. As though you were a Noble Lady or… an actual Siofra,” Lucas said, remembering the name he had given her on the first night he met her.

“I told you,” she said with a blush. “I am no fae. My hands are just like this. I wear gloves all the time so I have no blemishes, I take care of my hands now drop it.” She spoke quickly as she dropped the rock back into the creek bed and then washed her face and drank some water. She reached up to smooth back her hair, which was in a braid as always.

More and more often, Lucas found himself watching the girl, appreciating up her easy graceful movements, the way her true laugh seemed to come from something very deep inside, not a mere chuckle on the lips when she’s slightly amused. She also opened up more to him, explaining some of her past and listening to his own attentively. This, he was not used to-- it was a rare thing when Vanessa fully listened to him and he had gotten used to it because, well, he supposed his life wasn’t all that special after all. Although… he had to admit, when Mia was listening to him, she made it seem as though it was. 

So he was surprised he didn’t see her hands until now and he kept a closer eye in the future for anything else he may have missed-- anything that made her mysterious character that much clearer. She taught him how to fight better and she seemed impressed at how quickly he learned and how soon enough they were much more easily doing drills together, or as she put it, ‘dancing’. 

\-- 

“Lucas, here… drink,” Ambrose said suddenly, handing the Innkeeper a huge glass of milk. Lucas was startled out of his reverie and the thoughts of braids and hands and fighting left him. “You must be parched and you look a bit--” 

“Lovestruck!” 

Lucas glared slightly down at the girl that he thought was so adorable earlier. She was beaming at him and he shrugged. “I don’t know about that but…” 

The girl giggled and it caused the other kids and patrons around the Inn to chuckle as well. “The boy obviously loved the girl-- and the boy is you and you obviously love Mia! It’s so… obvious.” 

“Well if you’ve got it all figured out, I guess I won’t be tellin’ the rest of me tale then!” Lucas growled out, drinking his milk and wiping his hand across his massive unruly beard. “How ‘bout you all scram and I get back to me work then?” 

The girl immediately stopped smiling and looked at him with the saddest look he’d ever seen on a tiny girl’s face. It was a bit dramatic, honestly. Like someone else he knew. 

“Lucas, come now,” Ambrose said with a pat on Lucas’s shoulder, a small hidden smile peeking through. “No need to be mean, the poor girl was simply being observant.” 

“Well it ain’t me and I am not lovestruck,” Lucas said, aware he himself was probably pouting but he didn’t care. It wasn’t him. He could never be so stupid…Oh how stupid he had been in younger days... 

“Please continue! I wanna hear more!” Another child said. 

“Oh yes Lucas, you really must continue now or I won’t be able to sleep a wink,” one of the ladies that was sitting on a table near by said, lightly petting her belly and leaning against her husband. “And the baby really wouldn’t like not being able to sleep, after all.” 

Lucas snorted slightly, feeling something ache in his chest as her husband chuckled fondly. “Well I can’t be disappointing pregnant women, I suppose.” 

With another few gulps of his milk, Lucas continued his story with a sigh. 

\---

As the cold wintry winds blew through the town, a jumble of excitement seemed to burst out of the sleepiness that came after harvest time. The midwinter chills seemed to deter only the very elderly and the sickly, but to everyone else, it was a time of merriment, as this year’s harvest was rather good and taxes had gone much more smoothly than they were expecting. The town was busy decorating for the night of the winter solstice, crisp winter air blowing into the village and driving out the sleepy warmth of fall. For Lucas, this was usually his time of relaxation. Few people travelled during the snowy months and the only real predator was the giant bears that prowled the forest--and those were often celebrated for the boon they brought to the village in the form of meat and fur. 

This winter, however, he was working harder than he ever had. With a loud thud, Lucas fell to the ground, a cloud of dust rising around him. Groaning, he rolled to the side and leapt up, eyes darting for where his sword had landed, only to see Mia twirling it with one of her rare smiles. 

“At least you don’t go easy on me,” He groused, limping slightly as he walked to get his sword. She handed it out to him and sheathed her own sword, a silent sign that their dancing was over for the day. 

“I would be doing you no favors if I went easy on you,” she replied, grabbing the leather pouch she used as a flask and sitting down.

“Exactly--I am grateful that you are such a wise and powerful teacher,” Lucas replied with only a hint of a smirk gracing his lips. 

“Oh don’t be an arse kisser,” she said with an equal smirk. “I doubt you’d do it well enough anyway.”

Lucas blushed hotly at her words--slightly thrown off balance. Do what well enough? He shook the thoughts clear and stepped forward, sitting down next to her. “Truly though-- I am honored that you have stayed with us this long...it has been a pleasure to get to know you as I have.” 

“I’ll admit it has been rather strange, staying in one place this long. I haven’t done so in a very long time-- but it has been fun and a bit of the relaxation that I needed, I suppose,” she said softly, then took a long gulp from her leather pouch and handed it to him as well. He caught the scent of his father’s crushed elderberry wine and chuckled slightly, taking a small sip and feeling the bittersweet burn at the back of his throat.

“This type of drink is not one for the forest after fighting,” he said, handing it back to her. “It’s for relaxing by the fire with a hot meal.” 

She shrugged lightly. “I was cleaning the bottles for your father and he said I could have some so I filled my pouch. Besides, it’s cold out here and I like how it warms me up from the inside.” 

He glanced at her, taking in her small figure and delicate features and shook his head. “You always surprise me. So small and dainty, easily chilled and quick to help around the inn, but you kick my arse daily and make me hurt for a week.” 

She gave him a side-eye playful glare that made something inside of him flutter. “The most deadly thing one can do is underestimate their opponent. It’s proven me the better in many dances and battles. Besides… size has nothing to do with power. Sure a Giant can strike you down easily-- but you will always be faster, trust me.”

Lucas raised an eyebrow. “You’ve fought a Giant? Like the ones in fairy tales?” 

She snorted. “Giants are not from fairy tales, they are as real as you or I. They just stay far far away from humans. We’ve hurt them too much in the past and they know now to keep away and to themselves in the far east mountains.” 

Lucas shook his head. “Am I ever going to know you? The real you, all of you?” 

“Probably not.” She stood up gracefully, putting her pouch back on her belt and held out a hand for him too. He took it, their leather gloves gripping tightly and stood up himself. “So this Winter Solstice festival… do you dress up for it?” 

He nodded. “Yes, we all bring out our best clothes and dance and sing all night by the fire… Father always has his best drinks made, mother has the kitchens make the best foods. My brother usually comes for a visit but he sent a letter saying he’d be late a few more weeks, he has to do more work for the wizard apparently.” 

He paused for a moment and then looked over at her, feigning casualness. “We also tend to escort someone to the festival…”

“And your woman isn’t back yet, it seems,” she said softly, looking forward towards the village rather than at him. It left a strange taste in his mouth, thinking of Vanessa now. The past months had been...wonderful--in fact, it was only when Mia mentioned her, that Lucas thought of her at all. It made him feel guilty; they were in love--surely he should have missed her more? 

“To be honest with you,” Lucas said softly, looking down at the ground. “It has been many weeks since I thought of Vanessa as...my woman.” 

“Oh?” He looked up in time to see her raised eyebrow and glance at him but then she looked away easily. “That is curious considering how very ardently she was your woman when I first came to this town. You were prepared to cut me to ribbons in the forest when I insulted her-- or try to at least. Regardless… if you do not feel for her as you did, perhaps you should speak with her about it. My uncle used to say that it is never good to keep matters of the heart waiting.” 

Lucas thought about telling Vanessa and cringed hard at the thought of the scream of anger that would erupt from her mouth at the conversation. He knew it was probably best to do… he needed to end things now so that she wouldn’t cut off her engagement to her father’s friend’s son. At least she’d be well off, in another town, rather than be… Lucas surprised himself at how easy it was for him to think of breaking things off with Vanessa. He was so in love with her, Mia was right. Perhaps he’d have to give this more thought and sleep on it but now was more of the time to celebrate anyway. 

“You’re right,” he said, not without a hint of surprise in his own voice. “When she gets back, one way or another I will speak with her on these matters.” Lucas stood up straighter, feeling almost a weight slipping off his shoulders. “However, that then leaves the both of us without escorts to the festival that is tonight--” 

“How do you know I don’t have an escort?” Mia asked, looking at him seriously. 

This took Lucas by even more shock, nearly enough to trip in his step. “You… what?” He calculated the amount of men that had come into the Inn in the last three months, trying to figure out who had asked her and when-- did they wait until he was gone? 

“Did you think no other man had asked me in town? Isn’t this Winter Solstice thing a bit of a big deal around here? I know I may not be that much of a looker but I am a single young woman…” 

“You are--” Lucas felt like the breath in his throat was hitched and he tried to clear it, not knowing what to say. “Who is it, may I ask? He is a lucky man. That you’re going with. Tonight. Maybe I know him. Actually I do know him, I know everyone in this town, I am the Warden after all-- let me tell you, just so you know, plenty of lust-crazed farmer’s boys in this town, not that there’s anything particularly wrong with that they’re just-- they may be--” 

“Oh so you think I won’t be able to handle myself with a lust-crazed farm boy?” 

This was definitely the worst conversation Lucas had ever had the misfortune to have. 

“N-no, that’s not what I said.”

They were quiet for a long moment as they walked back into town, Lucas’s mind reeling and unable to form a coherent thought that wasn’t along the lines of who is it who can I go beat up right now? And Mia’s steps even silent on the path as they passed by some of the decorations for tonight. 

Once they got back to the Inn, Lucas’s hands were sweaty inside of his gloves and his mood was slowly descending into darkness. Mia took off her cloak, hanging it over her arm and turned to him. “I promised your mother I’d help her with something tonight.” 

“Y-yeah-- all right,” Lucas said, feeling slightly sick to his stomach. 

She looked at him for a moment, rising slightly up and down on the balls of her feet and Lucas noticed the gesture in a subconscious way. He was about to turn away and go to his room to punch his pillow for hours before she spoke again. 

“Oh and I didn’t say yes.” 

Lucas looked at her sharply. “What?” 

“I didn’t say yes to any of the men that asked. See you tonight, Lucas,” she said softly, turning easily and walking off to the back rooms. 

~

After he was done preparing the inn with his father, Lucas had rushed to bathe and put on his cleanest tunic and trousers, brushing his hair into some sort of state of calm-- though of course, it still ended up messy. 

Lucas took the extra time he had to do a little...extra cleaning up. Going down to the fire, he heated a bowl of water, grabbing a fine razor blade from behind the bar and taking it down to his rooms. Lathering up his face with a deep breath, he looked at the beard and scruff that marked his face and decided that it was time to put an end to it. Not, mind you, because of the comment Mia had made in jest one evening--no he was choosing to be clean shaven...to impress her. Carefully, he began to shave, his mind wandering as the blade carefully did its precise work. 

He nervously wiped his sweaty palms on his cloak as he put it on, waiting in the tavern downstairs for Mia. People were milling about, the majority of the town was outside with the bonfires and walking their children around. The taverns wouldn’t get busy until at least another hour or so-- when the babes would be sent to bed and the adults would start to drink, warm up and dance. His mother and father had gone out earlier, meeting with their friends and inviting others over to have drinks and midwinter meal at their inn later tonight. 

Lucas was… he didn’t really know what to expect so he didn’t really know how to feel. He knew he was nervous, not just for how he felt about Mia but how he was coming to realize he didn’t feel for Vanessa. He was nervous about what others would say-- Mia was starting to get noticed, people were constantly talking about the new worker in the Emrys Tavern and Lucas was only now realizing how many men probably did want to go to the midwinter festival with his tesni. Lucas blinked to himself, realizing belatedly that he had just called her his. Lucas didn’t even think of Vanessa as his to be honest-- he had always thought of her as a woman he had to try and work hard for but never as something that he could really… hold or keep. Vanessa didn’t want to be kept, she wanted to be her own-- and use others. 

He shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts. He didn’t know what to expect from Mia either-- half the time she was playing circles around him, her sharp wit and even sharper sword making him dizzy. She was like the snapping embers of a flame, warming and enchanting but dangerous if you didn’t know how to handle her correctly. And Lucas only sometimes felt like he could handle her-- when she smiled at him, when she laughed at something he said or did, when the look in her eyes softened enough to allow him in. She was tough on the outside, always wearing clothes that looked like she was ready to fight or run. Her hair was always up, her gloves always on, a response ready on her tongue most of the time. But sometimes, she was soft. She was tough on the outside but sweet and melting on the inside, like a toffee. He felt like he was living for those moments these past few days especially-- when he knew she was testing him, that she was interested in him. 

It made his heart beat fast and his palms sweat. It also made him feel like he was betraying Vanessa, but he couldn’t make himself stop. Was it really a betrayal when he was going to end things with Vanessa when she came back anyway? He would just need to restrain himself until then, Lucas knew. 

All of these thoughts were wiped almost completely from his mind when he heard steps on the staircase of the inn. Mia had been getting ready in one of the other maid’s rooms, and Lucas had guessed a mercenary probably didn’t own many dresses so she was borrowing one for the night. He didn’t really know what he had expected… but it wasn’t this. 

Her hair was out of it’s usual braid and down, soft black curls framing her face, a small white ribbon tying a few strands in the back. Gone were her rugged tunics and trousers, her belt that held her sword-- though Lucas could bet all his money she had a weapon on her somewhere in the midst of her dress… and what a figure-forming dress it was. A vibrant red with white ruffles, it hugged her upper body closely, revealing a lot more than Lucas was expecting. He struggled to take a breath as she walked closer to him, a small smile on her face-- nervous? Self conscious? Lucas wanted to ease it for her.

“My dear Lady…” Lucas murmured, bowing low in front of her; not just a bow to the elders but the one reserved specifically for members of the royalty. “Though I despise bringing such a lowly matter to your attention...I am in fear for my companion...have you seen a brave strong beautiful warrior by the name of Mia on the premises?” A hint of a smile touched his lips as he gazed upon her. He felt something pulsing within his veins, something primal and wild. It wanted to claim her, take her strongly in his arms and hold her in such a way that no one would dare question who would be at her side--

“Oh hush,” she said softly, waving her hand lightly at him. The gesture caught his eye and he realized she wasn’t wearing her usual leather gloves. 

With a deft move, one that he learned directly from her, he caught her hand, holding it firmly but gently in his own and marveled at the feel of it. So smooth--how was it that a warrior’s hand--such a fierce warrior who had beaten him in new and exciting ways every day since they met--how could it be so smooth? And small? His hand engulfed her own, feeling the chill of it seeping the warmth of his fire warmed hand. With another bow, he brought her hand to his lips, pressing the barest kiss to her skin, feeling a shocking thrill leap straight to the core of the feel of her skin against his lips. Oh this was a feeling he would definitely become addicted to. The feel of her skin--it brought dark lustful thoughts to his mind, awakening a hunger within him that he had never felt before with Vanessa. 

“The fact that you are my guest of honor….it is the highest honor I have beheld in my life. You are--” the words caught in his throat as he gazed back up at her. “You are the most beautiful sight I have ever seen.” 

She watched him for a long moment and he could see the way her eyes softened-- but not in a pitying manner at all, more like… her fiery mischief was replaced temporarily with a warming trust. A silent acceptance of him as a whole, not just the parts of him that she may find endearing, but all of him. He hoped that this meant she approved of his wardrobe for the night. 

While he may be nothing more than the warden of a small village that did not make it onto any map, he still tried his best to make her proud. His face cleanly shaven, dark brown hair clean--though still with the wild mop of mess that even his mother had surrendered to, framed by the high collar of his black guard formal uniform. He wore this uniform not more than twice a year and it showed. The fabric was crisp and pressed, the dye still held strong in the cotton and leather accented the trim and elbows. While maybe a bit drab in all black and navy blue for a festival such as this, his mum had said it made him look dashing--and hopefully that was enough for Mia. He hoped it was. He did not know when he had begun to put so much stock in her opinion of him...but he was. 

“Your words drip with honey… trying to sweeten me up for something, Lucas Emrys?” She asked playfully, pulling her hand away gently, tucking it into the pockets of hand warmers. 

His hands missed hers but he straightened regardless, an easy smile on his face. “Indeed, I am. I must convince you to dance with me at the festival or really, it would be of no use for us to leave the inn at all.” 

The smile was teasing but her eyes were serious-- testing him again, he could tell. Testing what he wanted, what he was willing to do. “If we do not make it out of the inn, how can I see if it’s worth my time to go dance? I was assured there would be a bonfire, candy, singing and dancing after all. I’d feel cheated if I weren’t out there with the rest of this… excitable town.” 

Well then, if that was what she was worried about, he would soon assuage those fears. “My dear lady,” he said again, keeping his voice mocking and playful but hoping the deep stare he let linger in her eyes show the gentleness beneath his words. “If that is the worry that plagues you, banish the very thought--it is not every year that we have a guest--a newcomer to the festivities--I take a personal and solemn vow that you will experience every aspect of our humble holiday.” 

Lucas bowed once more before linking arms with her, feeling the warmth of her bare skin even through the layers of his uniform. “You look quite...regal,” Mia admitted as they made their way away from the hearth fire of the inn, easily side-stepping the awe’d patrons--all of them staring at Mia. As they should be. Even after the shock of seeing her in something other than breeches, Lucas thought Mia looked like the figures in tapestries--the ones representing the ancient elven royalty--with their hair of spun black gold, shining and dancing with a mystery of its own in the firelight. 

“Thank you--it is a uniform that up until this very night, I loathed to wear,” Lucas said, eyes dancing with merriment at the nostalgia of youth. “The other lads in the village mocked me fiercely every time I wore it.” 

“Well,” Mia said softly, looking around at the other young men of the village, meeting the hungry gaze of each and every one of them before--subtly curving her body into Lucas’s. “They are certainly not laughing now. Nor is any fair maiden,” she said, a hint of steel in her voice. Lucas could almost imagine her tone as the fighting position she took--not when she was teaching--no--this tone was a warning; like when she was letting Lucas know that his jesting had been taken too far--and that Mia was now going to remind him of his place. A secret part of him was eager to see Mia put the other “fair” maidens of the village in their place--the same part of him that ached to be claimed by her--a lustful and dangerous thought that sent the trills of magic raising the hair on the back of his neck. 

“Indeed--though I am sure it is because they have swallowed their tongue at the sight of your beauty,” Lucas replied, smiling at the verbal sparring they engaged in. While on the sparring field, Mia still greatly outclassed him, in the verbal arena, they danced and weaved as if they had been life long partners. When she feinted, he knew to parry, when he thrust, she was always ready with a leap away. It was this--more than her beauty--more than her strength and intrigue--it was her mind, the quick wit of her tongue that drew Lucas in. 

“You’re buttering me up again, Emrys,” she said with a wry smile.

He was saved from replying by the cold blast that assaulted them as he opened the door. Mia, whom he had noticed was often cold even under the midday sun, practically leapt into his arms with how violently she shivered. 

“Despite how absolutely divine you look, I believe someone forgot to take the weather into account,” Lucas said with a grin, quickly leading her over to the nearest bonfire. The streets flickered with the light of dozens of torches, snow scraped to the edges by the younger boys earlier that day. Though bonfires littered the streets, it was still enough of a walk to the nearest one that Lucas worried over her health as she fought for control of her chattering teeth. 

Mia let out a small huff, curling her arms around herself. “Bella wouldn’t let me wear my normal clothing.”

“While I will long remember the sight of you in this heavenly attire,” Lucas said, peeling his outer guard coat off as they walked, “You will never hear me say that your health does not mean more to me.” With a deft flick of his wrists, he snapped the coat over her bare shoulders, suppressing his own shiver as the cold seeped into his bones. Beneath his coat he still wore a black shirt, one of his finer ones but still made of linen, dyed the previous winter. “Beside,” Lucas said, a faint blush warming his cheeks against the biting cold, “You will hear no complaints from me over your “normal clothing”.” 

She narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you mean? And why are you being so… formal with me now?” 

Nearing the edge of the bonfire, Lucas stopped, a soft touch to her elbow making her turn and look at him. The snow was melted here and shadows played their dark games on her skin in the night. “Because...tonight--I like to think we are more than we were. Tonight...there is no Vanessa. There is no sparring--no worry of where we belong...Tonight there is nothing but a beautiful woman who--somewhere along the way stole a piece of my heart...and a night I wish to make the most of.” Lucas stuttered, blushing at the unsaid implications of his words. “I meant--of this festival--of our time together--not--that--I mean--” 

“No Vanessa?” She asked, looking at him seriously.

“If I am completely honest with you,” Lucas said, looking deep into her eyes, hoping--daring for her to see the truth he spoke,” There has been no Vanessa for a very long time now.” 

Mia smiled then, and Lucas couldn’t even think-- couldn’t even breathe when the firelight flickered across her expression and her teeth flashed in the night. It wasn’t very often he saw her grin in such a way and the thought of her doing it for him-- just for him, because of his words-- 

“Then I suppose you ought to make sure I don’t wander off or freeze to death, so thank you for escorting me, Emrys… Lucas,” she said softly, her brilliant grin reducing to a soft smile that was equally heart-wrenching if not totally blinding anymore. “Tonight will be one to remember, I’m sure.”

With a breath, Lucas took off the supple leather gloves he wore and silently passed the to her, a soft, private smile gracing his lips. “Then I shall do everything I can to make sure you are warm this cold cold night.” With that he daringly wrapped his arm around her lithe frame, had she always been this tiny? If he hadn’t known better he would have said she was frail, and led her closer to the dancing flames. 

“Ah, thank you,” she said softly taking the gloves and quickly slipped them on as though she her life depended on covering her hands. She smirked slightly up at him. “What will people around town say…” 

He laughed then, nudging them a place as close to the flames as anyone dared, relishing the heat that seared away the ice and cold. “Many many things,” he replied with a grin. “These people have very little to talk about--why one time I remember they were kept gossiping for two months on why the coloring of a colt turned out the way it did.” With a glance around at the others he leaned in, lips close to her ear. “The honor and trust you show in me by going without gloves tonight is something I will cherish...for I know the implications...but these are simple folk--they do not deserve to know the truth, for with it they would come to the wrong conclusions.” 

She stiffened slightly in his arm and he looked down at her face, how it had gone paler slightly. “Wh-what do you mean? Why would my… my gloves matter--what are you implying?” She asked quickly through frozen lips, under her breath so no one would hear. “What wrong conclusions?” 

He shrugged slightly, worried at the look in her eyes. She looked like a deer about to bolt, panic ripe in her deep brown eyes. “All the village knows of your prowess as a warrior--and yet your hands are unblemished--untouched by the callouses of a swordsman. They may resort to magic as the cause…I simply do not want more trouble to plague you than necessary.” 

“Indeed…” She seemed to swallow and breathe for a long moment, watching the fire. “What do you think?”

He blinked and looked down at her. “What do I think about what?” 

“Why do you think my hands are unblemished?” She subconsciously shifted the hair in front of her ears and he caught a glimpse of her ears, blinking, something ticking in his brain-- had he ever seen her ears? As ridiculous as it seemed, he didn’t think he had. 

“Well...it is as you said--Some things are important to men, other things to women. It is important for you to keep your hands unblemished. And while you are a great fighter, you also put an importance on the quality of your hands, so you wear your gloves.” Lucas shrugged slightly. “It is the same with me and my hair--though my mother begs me to chop it short in the style of boys in court and my father urges me to grow it long in the style of our ancestors--I keep it a happy medium that pleases me.” 

She paused for a moment and then burst out laughing. It wasn’t actually offensive or anything, it just startled Lucas and he frowned a moment before grinning ruefully at her as she she just laughed and laughed. While he did not know why she laughed, the sight of her joy was so overwhelming that he simply soaked it in. 

“I’m sorry-- I just-- first I imagined you with extremely long hair-- then I realized you were serious and I tried to stop laughing but that always makes me laugh harder,” she said trying to get a straight face again but still twitching. 

Lucas chuckled as well, hands raising to the heat of the flames. “Yes, it is quite a gruesome sight, believe me--When I was younger, my father insisted that my mother let me grow it out--they still tell stories of the sight of my long hair flowing in the wind.” 

She laughed again. “Long flowing locks do not do well in the wind let me tell you. Your father wears his well though-- he reminds me a grizzly bear, much better than the one I killed of course--” she twitched again and then looked aghast. “Not that I would ever do that to your father, I love your father-- I love your whole family--” She turned a bright red and looked away and Lucas was-- well, suffice it to say he was astonished at her behavior-- she must be nervous. It was a sight to see.

“Are you sure?” He asked. “Shall I go warn my father of his impending doom for the trophy of his wild mane?” 

“No! Of course not!” She shook her head quickly. “Besides, unlike other mercenaries, I never keep souvenirs.” 

Lucas glanced at her briefly, forcing himself to remain calm. It was not very often that she spoke of her trade, something that infinitely irritated him; the life of a mercenary must be a grand thing indeed--and yet she was insistently tight-lipped on the topic. “Oh? Not anything eh? I would keep rings…” Lucas mused. 

“Well… once I kept a cloak… but that was only because it actually was small enough for me and I was very sick and cold… but that was about it,” she said, holding her arms out to the warmth. 

Lucas smiled down at her, a soft feeling fluttering inside of him. It was a strange feeling--he had to admit he liked the way his dark coat brought out the red of her dress even more, a vibrancy that seeped into her cheeks as well. “I understand...I was joking when I said I would--keep things. It seems...a dark practice doesn’t it?” Lucas shifted then, a slight grimace marring his face. “However, if a man had a nice pair of boots, I might be tempted to lift them. 

She looked down immediately at his boots and then looked back up at him. “Are those boots old? Do they hurt?” She frowned. “No wonder your form is sometimes off. You need to replace them.” 

Suddenly an extremely drunk huge man barrelled into the both of them, a laughing drunk woman following him and also pushing them over and Lucas had grabbed out to make sure Mia wouldn’t fall and was already yelling at the man. “Oi! Watch where ya goin, ya giant oaf! Muller! Is that you?! Boy ‘m gonna whoop that sorry behind of yours--” 

“Holy mother of elves--” Mia was cursing, holding her foot with one hand, her dress hiking up to reveal more ruffles and Lucas blushed, still holding onto her arm. “I’ve had a rock fall on my foot that hurt less than that oaf’s foot!” 

Lucas quickly helped her over to a log on the edge of the street, letting her sit down. “I’m so sorry I didn’t see that coming-- I’ll whack him for that I swear on me mum--”

“It’s okay,” she said quickly, rubbing her foot. “It’s not broken or anything.” 

Lucas watched her for a moment. “Mia. What are you?” 

She looked at him quizzically. “What do you mean, Lucas? I’m a mercenary, a woman, a bit of a bar wench now and still a fighter--” 

“No,” he said resolutely, shaking his head. “You’re… you’re not just those things.” He took a deep breath and raised his hand, letting his fingers brush over her hair-- soft, incredibly soft hair-- and he didn’t even startle when she gripped his wrist rapidly. 

“What are you doing,” she whispered-- not a question, just a whisper of breath, terrified almost. He paused, not thinking he’d ever hear fear in her voice.

“I want to see,” he insisted, reaching his fingers out despite her vice-like grip on his wrist. He curled a lock of her hair in his lips and tucked it behind her ear, eyes widening. “Oh.” 

She blushed furiously and let go of his wrist. “I’m going home.” She got up instantly and was already walking back towards the inn. 

“Mia!” Lucas shouted, getting up as well. “I’m sorry! Please-- wait-- a dance, please-- I promised you a dance-- I won’t ever mention it or anything--” 

She turned towards him, seeming smaller than she ever had, her shoulders hunched slightly as her hands gripped her dress tightly. “Don’t ever say anything.” 

He held his hands up. “I don’t care” he said quickly. “I don’t care one damn bit.” 

“Why do you have to be so damn curious, Lucas Emrys?” She said with a huff that Lucas wasn’t going to admit to sounding like a small sob. 

“Because I want to get to know you,” he said softly. “Because everything about you intrigues me--fascinates me. 

“Why can’t you leave well enough alone…” She said slowly, walking back towards him. “You’re lucky I just really want to dance or else I’d smack you and leave.” 

He grinned slightly. “You wouldn’t.”

“What makes you think I wouldn’t?” She demanded. “I whoop your arse on and off the sparring grounds.” 

“Because…” he shrugged slightly. “You could have come out dancing with any of the men that had asked you. But you chose me.” He watched her with a stubborn stare and started to smirk when she didn’t say anything, her lips just twitching into a small smile. 

“You are such a prat,” she said with a mock glare and shoved past him.

“Mia,” he called out, watching her as she took four or five steps away from him. She turned around, the frills of her dress spinning around her and his too long sleeves.

“What?” she asked with a huff. 

“The dancing is this way,” he said with a boyish grin. 

“One more snarky comment from you and I’m leaving to dance with some other nicer men.” She crossed her arms, glaring at him.

His demeanor changed instantly, the warmth sparking into an inferno. “No. No you will not be.” he said flatly, striding over quickly, holding her close. He did not know where this beast had appeared from, but it snarled its demons within his chest. The mere thought of her--of her dancing with another man--it sent a fury pumping through his veins. “I am your escort for the night--”

She raised a shaped eyebrow and smirked a bit. “So jealous…”

“Don’t fight me on this,” he said softly. 

She watched him for a long moment. “When are you going to tell her you don’t want her anymore?” 

He straightened then, a surge of pride rushing through him. “When she gets back here...the moment she arrives back home, I will notify her...of my change in affections.” 

Mia nodded. “Good…” She took his arm in hers. “We need mead… I hate dresses for not having pockets. I could use my flask right now.”

He was surprised at how much ease she had with him, as they danced and he held her closer than what was probably appropriate. No one said anything and he didn’t care what anyone else thought, anyway. He watched the fires light up her skin, turning her dark black hair almost a light brown with red streaks in it. She was clearly a dancer as much as a fighter, with how lithe her footsteps were and how she swayed her hips. He was mesmerized and it got him drunk faster than mead actually could. They danced for so long his feet ached in his shoes and he’d never felt as happy and.. complete in his life. 

He was usually not much of a dancer, preferred to watch the people living joyous lives, content in the knowledge that he was the sentry--the protector and that he was the one who fostered and nurtured happy lives by keeping them safe. But tonight...it was different. With Mia, he was different--not simply a single role in life but a human--with different sides and opinions and strengths. With her, he was whole. And so his feet continued to step lightly next to hers, the warmth of her cheek against his chest making feelings bloom like cherry blossoms in his chest. 

Lucas didn’t notice how late it was getting until a few folk were dying some of the fires down in case of wind blowing them into the town and causing a fire to spread. He looked around, his eyes finally breaking their gaze down at Mia. He saw that quite a few of the young ones had run off probably to get into trouble further in the dark, and more and more adults were leaving to go home and sleep off the drink. 

“Dancing is much like sparring with you,” Lucas said softly, noting how out of use his voice was. “Something I simply cannot get enough of.” 

She looked up at him and smiled softly and he felt his heart thud so hard in his chest, it almost hurt his rib cage. “I usually don’t agree with you, but I do in this case. I could dance all night… but we should get back, it’s late.” 

“Aye...we should get back,” he replied, something primal inside of him taking the meaning and twisting it, churning it over in the pit of his chest. 

She pressed against his side as he took her arm and walked her back to the Inn. They took their time, walking slowly and looking around at the slowly falling snow that had begun only moments before they stopped dancing. He watched as the snow fell into her dark hair and he took a deep breath. 

“Mia, I--”

“Lucas--” 

They both stopped mid-sentence and Lucas let out a small chuckle.

“You first--”

“Go ahead--” 

Mia bit her lip, a small laugh escaping as she stood on the porchstep of the Inn. Lucas realized belatedly they had made it home. “I was just going to thank you for the nice night. It was very special and it’s good to know that there are gentlemen.”

“Of course,” Lucas said instantly, smiling softly. “I must say...our night was better together than separate...I’m usually not one to partake in the wildness of youth but...what say you we change out of these stuffy clothes and go night hunting?” 

She chuckled. “Don’t have ya have warden duty?”

“I do…” he shrugged with a grin, “Have we spoiled you since your first night here where you actually preferred the woods?” he said with a playful smirk. 

 

“Well, I suppose I can come out for a bit, but really… it’s improper for a lady to be out in the dark,” she said and then burst out into laughter. He joined her, laughing hard and fully. “I couldn’t even believe it as I said it as a joke!” 

“As you would say, ‘screw being a proper lady’,” Lucas said with a grin. “Come out with me.” 

She bit her lip and was about to say something when the door to the Inn opened behind her. “Mia? Is that you? Oh Lucas darling, how was the festival you two? Come inside, it’s cold out! Mia I’ve set aside your linens so you can sleep peacefully-- you need to rest after working so hard all day.” 

Mia looked at him with a playful look in her eye and stepped inside. Lucas groaned and followed. “Mum! The festival was fine-- I really have to go to work and Mia said she would help me since there’ll be a lot of… drunken folk and-” 

“Oh no she won’t be helping you with that!” Helen chastised him. “She has been up far before you even came home from warden duty and has been helping me decorate and cook and clean all day long. She deserves a rest, Lucas Emrys! And you leave her well alone!” 

Mia stepped behind Helen and nodded subserviently and as soon as Helen turned away, she stuck her tongue out at Lucas. He glared and then straightened. “Well fine, I’m going to go and deal with the town myself then! You will all regret it if something happens to me when I’m all alone out there!” 

“And if you seriously can’t handle some drunken folk and handsy ladies by now, no amount of teaching from Mia can help you be a better fighter then, son,” Helen said with a snort. 

Lucas’s jaw dropped. “MUM!” Mia burst into laughter. 

“Don’t ‘mum’ me, now go and get changed I won’t be washing vomit off of your nicest clothes that’s for sure.” 

“Tough luck, son,” Balinor said from the corner where he was drinking a pint and playing around with his carving tools. 

Helen whirled on him. “And you--” 

“I’m just sittin’ here I promise!” Balinor said and put both hands up innocently. 

“What happened?” Mia asked, walking over to Balinor. 

“Oh, nothing at all--” 

“He hurt his ankle trying to dance to some jig with his drunken mates! He’s not to move for the rest of the night!” Helen said with a glare at him. 

“It wasn’t a drunken jig it was the dance of my people!” Balinor said ardently. 

Lucas looked around the room and shook his head. “I’m done for the night then,” he said with a sigh and went to his room, collapsing on the bed. Mia was suddenly at his door and he startled, sitting up. “How are you that quiet.” 

“I’m half elf,” she said, closing the door behind her. 

“Yeah and ‘m a dog’s father,” he snorted, laying back on the bed. 

“Well I wouldn’t call Vanessa a bitch but that does make sense,” she said dryly, walking over hesitantly, watching his reaction carefully. “I’m not joking.” 

He turned onto his side and rested his head on his crooked arm. “Eh? What do you mean?” 

She seemed to be teetering on the edge of something in that moment. She bit her lip and clenched her fingers and then slowly brought her hands up. Scooping up all of her hair, she tied it with a ribbon that was around her wrist, tying it back away from her face and neck… and ears. He sat up and looked, frowning and then eyes widening. “Wait--” 

“I didn’t say it earlier…. about my family. My mother and father were killed. But not just for any reason. My mother was a princess of the Elven kingdom, soon to be wed to one of the last remaining Elven kings other than her own father. She was beautiful and strong and free and she ran the night before her wedding because she had fallen in love. With my father… a stablehand, fully human. They ran away together and had me-- far away from her kingdom. She gave up everything to be with him-- and he, in turn, brought his brother to fight for them. My uncle. When I was born, I was kept a secret, and we lived in the forest…” 

“Wait-- hold on half a moment,” Lucas said with a choking noise at the back of his throat. “You actually are-- you’re-- half-- oh bloody--” 

“I didn’t know… I didn’t know anything as I grew up. I thought I was just a normal girl. Some of the others who lived in the forest were escapees from the kingdoms that had banned magic. So we all just thought magic and everything was normal… then, one night… when I was 9, they came.” Mia froze and stared at him and he could almost hear her heartbeat race with how her face looked. 

“Mia…” he said softly, taking a deep breath. “Come sit down--you look--shaken.” 

Lucas couldn’t really believe this was going on--he couldn’t stop staring. He knew he should, could see her withdrawing within herself even as she bravely stepped closer and sat on the bed next to him. Leaning forward, he reached out and caressed the tip of her ear. Mia hissed softly, the very picture of uneasy but miraculously held still. 

“You’re beautiful,” he breathed out in awed wonder. 

She scoffed. “No, I’m not beautiful. I don’t work hard to be beautiful. I work hard to be a warrior. The true Elven folk were powerful warriors, not just fanciful romantics like you all paint them to be.” 

Lucas nodded. “I understand… but it doesn’t change the fact that you are.” They were both quiet for a moment and he looked back down. “So your grandfather’s kingdom found your mum and father…” 

“The magic folk made a deal with him… they revealed our identity if he would let them live in the Elven land to be safe and have magic. He sent his army to just capture my parents apparently is what the guards said but they took my mother’s leave as a betrayal…” She looked towards his wardrobe but her sharp brown eyes were hazy and unfocused, thinking. “It was a massacre… The only reason I made it out alive was because my uncle is a skilled swordsmen and quick on his feet. He carried me and ran so far he couldn’t possibly have been found. He took me across the deserts, the black mountains, the waters of the deep… he raised me and taught me how to fight and continue.” 

“Mia…” 

She clenched her hands in her lap. “My uncle was killed as well. I was fourteen, and we were in a forest camping for the night. A spy from my mother’s kingdom had finally found me… he killed my uncle in front of me and I managed to kill him before he could capture me. It was the first time I had blood on my hands and I… I loved it, at the time. I was fueled with rage and pain and loss, having lost my family and any chance at happiness. I hated being half elf so viciously, I hid my hands and ears since then, I spent hours in the sun to at least make myself as dark as I could get and I began to murder for money, something that elves were sworn to never do. But I also hated humans-- because they had betrayed me and my family time and time again. I became a mercenary for petty lords, even worked my way up to high kings as I traveled… and I ended up here.” 

Lucas sat listening, heart a whirlwind of emotions inside of him as he watched her speak, trying to imagine the life she had lived...what it must have been like. 

“I always knew you were strong,” he said slowly. “Since the first time we met I could hear the steel in your voice...but I never--ever thought this would be why. I honestly...I can’t imagine it. Not even in my mind--much less to live through it...to survive it.” 

“I didn’t think anyone would ever know the real me. The day we met when you called me Tesni, I almost… well, I was very emotional. That’s why I was so angry with you. I thought you had found out somehow, that I was Elven. Regardless…” She took a deep breath and looked at him. “I’m glad someone knows. I’m glad you know.” 

Lucas chuckled softly. “Tesni--oh it makes so much more sense now...I had not known...but I am glad I do.” He looked at her again, smiling softly. “I did not know what secrets you held--but...I could see their weight on you. “

She bit her lip softly, her teeth catching the pink and he felt a surge of something powerful and magical deep inside him wanting to kiss her so strongly he almost couldn’t bear it. “Well… I should go to bed now, your mother will be in soon and you must get to your duties, as well.” She stood and ran a hand down her dress. 

“Mia,” he said quickly, standing up next to her. He had taken a step up as he stood, bringing him within a hair’s breadth of her. 

“Thank you.” he said softly. “For telling me. And I swear on all that I am--I will not tell a soul.” 

“Well good, because I’m not going to be wordweaving it around the town, I’ll tell you that,” she said with a smile and turned, opening the door and walking out of the room. 

\-- 

The next afternoon, he was groggy and half asleep as he rolled out of his bed and walked to the kitchens, rubbing his eyes. He wasn’t expecting it but his father suddenly grabbed him by the arm and said in a hushed voice. “Just warning you, someone’s just gotten home and--” 

“Lucas!” 

Lucas froze, going cold and cringing hard. He was not ready for this. 

She ran in and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I missed you, my love! Didn’t ya miss me?” 

“Ah, Vanessa, I--” he felt suddenly warmer as she wrapped herself around him and he sighed, breathing her in deeply and then tensed, his mind whirling in confusion. What was going on? He probably was just remembering his past feelings...but he didn’t feel those anymore--right? 

She pulled away and looked up at him, smiling brightly and then her lips were on his and she was kissing him so deeply it almost hurt. He felt his heartbeat thudding so fast, it was almost exactly like… but, no, how could he want two women at the same time? He couldn’t-- this was wrong-- all of this was wrong. It wasn’t the same--it was too intense it was dangerous--with Mia it was a roaring flame but this--this was an inferno. He was choking on his breath, his heart racing faster and faster--something was inside of him, he could feel it twisting and writhing, squeezing around his heart. He was going to be burned alive. He lightly pushed Vanessa off of him. “Va--”

“Lucas darling, I’ve missed you so much-- I thought about you the whole time and I bought some amazing things,” she said excitedly, gripping his arm. 

“I… I missed you too,” he said in a broken voice. Why did he say that? Did he miss her? Well, he did… or at least he missed the idea of her. His love. “Vanessa-- we need to talk--”

“After dinner-- let’s grab some things and go out to the field, I want to have you all to myself,” she said looking him in the eyes. Lucas’s breathing slowed and he could feel himself relaxing, taking her in. 

“Yeah… okay,” he said slowly, nodding. He saw movement at the corner of his eye and saw Mia come into the room, freezing when she saw both of them. Oh… Mia-- that’s right-- he was-- 

“Lucas, I love you so much,” Vanessa said, taking his face in her hands and pulling him down into a deep kiss. He gasped against her lips, gripping her by the hips, half of him wanting to push her off and the other half wanting to drag her closer. What was happening to him? Why couldn’t he make up his mind? “Don’t ever want to leave you again, my love. You’re mine, and I’m yours.” 

Everything inside him clicked into place and he smiled down at her, kissing her again. “I’m yours, and you’re mine.” How could he have lost sight of this? This is what he truly wanted. 

He barely noticed as the door snapped shut, Mia leaving the room. 

\-- 

“Lucas, you have to understand-- there’s something very wrong here,” Balinor was trying to say as Lucas was cleaning up after a few patrons. Balinor was making drinks and they were in a rush. Mia was across the room, serving guests and his mother was in the back kitchens. 

“Father, I really don’t have the time for your theories-- Vanessa and I love each other, we’re going to be married. Why can’t you just be happy for me?” 

“But what about--” 

Suddenly she was at his side, even though she hadn’t looked or spoken to him since yesterday when Vanessa had come back. “I’m taking my break,” Mia said, tossing her towel at Lucas viciously as she grabbed her bag and left the Inn. 

Lucas sighed, watching her. “I’m in love with Vanessa. We belong together. Other people are just distractions.”

“Whatever you say, Lucas. I’m just letting you know right now that the girl that just walked out of this Inn is a better girl than you deserve, boy.” Balinor was gruff as he pushed past him to tend to the patrons. 

“Don’t I know it,” he muttered to himself. 

He went back to cleaning, sweeping and washing the dishes. The time passed faster as the afternoon went on and everyone left after lunch. He watched as Vanessa’s parents came in and they even smiled at him, which was more than they usually did for Lucas, considering he always claimed he’d steal her away from her betrothed. 

Maybe this was for the best. Mia was going to move on soon anyway, she always did talk about taking up work for the King of the next kingdom, on the edge of the lands. She was going to leave and he’d be brokenhearted and he’d have lost Vanessa. It wasn’t fair of him to leave Vanessa when they were meant to be anyway. He was hers and she was his. It’d been that way for years. Mia was just… a passing fancy, that’s all. He nodded to himself even though a part of him ached. 

He turned when the door opened and Mia herself came running in. Her hair was coming loose from her braid and she was wide eyed. “Lucas-- I have to tell you something--” She was panting slightly and she gripped his arm. “Lucas, listen to me very carefully,” she whispered. “Vanessa-- she’s not what she seems. She’s not in love with you--” 

Lucas frowned, looking at her. “Mia, what are you--” 

“Lucas!” Vanessa came running in, panting even harder and looking frazzled. “Lucas don’t listen to her, she’s trying to trick you-- I saw her stealing money from--” 

“Oh shut the hell up you cheating little witch--” Mia snarled at her. “Lucas, she’s a liar and a cheat--” 

“Girls!” Lucas’s heart hurt and he didn’t understand what was happening. “Outside!” He angrily strode out the front door and towards the side of the Inn where no one could hear them. “What the hell is going on?” 

“Darling she’s a disgusting thief,” Vanessa sniffed, walking close behind him and then cuddling into his side. 

“I’m not a thief, you’re a cheat--” Mia had never seemed this angry before and Lucas suddenly remembered-- she was half elven. Their wrath was always rumored to be vicious. She must be kept in check or she could end up hurting someone or herself. 

“Mia why don’t you just--go calm down before you say or do something you regret,” Lucas said sharply, staring at her and hoping the extra meanings got through to her. If she ended up hurting Vanessa, the town would kill her without a second thought. 

“She’s turnin’ on ya, I just saw her kissin’ with the baker’s son in the red forest!” Mia said quickly, staring hard at Lucas. 

Lucas heart felt like it had been stabbed, so painfully and suddenly that his breath left him and he almost double over in pain. Vanessa--kissing someone else? No--No, it couldn’t be. She would never do that to him it was so behind rational thought that just hearing it made him feel like he was dying. 

“Lucas, darling, she’s lying because I told her I saw her stealing from your Father. She’s trying to turn you against me-- Lucas, you’re mine and I’m all yours, I swear I’m yours, why would I ever kiss the baker’s son, he’s ugly and horrible,” Vanessa clung to him and she was crying. He hated when she cried. “You’re mine and I’m yours, I love you-- she’s the worst person I’ve ever met and she deserves to die for her sinful nature. Look at her-- she doesn’t even belong here! Tell her to get out, Lucas. Don’t break my heart, she’s a liar.” 

“Lucas, you know who I am-- I’ve told you-- do you really know who she is?” 

“Both of you,” Lucas ground out, “Both of you get out. I can’t--even hear myself think with all this chatter--leave me to think--”

“Lucas, I can’t leave you, I’m worried for you darling,” Vanessa said sweetly in his ear. “She’s been corrupting you and lying to you while I’ve been gone, hasn’t she?” 

“Vanessa, darling I just-- I need to think--” Lucas said, biting his lip hard. Why wouldn’t the world just be quiet for a moment? He could hardly hear anything inside or outside of his head. Just Vanessa’s voice sweet as honey in his ear. 

“Lucas--just listen to me Lucas you trust me,” Mia said pleadingly, stepping forward. Lucas wasn’t sure what happened next--he had been too busy trying to quiet the thoughts in his head but out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flurry of motion and then Vanessa screaming out in pain, falling to the ground. 

“What did you do?!” Lucas shouted at Mia, immediately putting himself in between the two of them. “Why did you hurt her?! She didn’t do anything!” In the back of his mind, Lucas was faintly aware of the fact that all the noise was gone from his mind--it was gone from everywhere. The world was completely silent--the silence after a glass has shattered beyond repair. 

“I think you need to leave,” Lucas said quietly, staring at her intently, though he didn’t really see her. She was a haze--a phantom outside of his reality. She didn’t matter. Only Vanessa did.

“Someday,” she said quietly and though she sounded so...frail. Something in her had broken...maybe it was the same glass that shattered within him as well. “Someday Lucas Emrys--you are going to regret this day. You are going to rue the day you’re alone without me.” The words hung heavy in the air between them, Vanessa for a moment forgotten. And then Mia turned on her heel and slipped into the woods like a ghost of a wind.

\--

In the dark firelight of the Inn, Lucas felt his heart ache suddenly so viciously that he had to stop his wordweaving. Everyone was hushed around the bar and a few of the women were even tearing up. The pregnant woman, Lisa he thinks belatedly, was full on crying on her husband’s shoulder. He couldn’t bear to continue, he couldn’t feel his legs suddenly, his breath was catching in his throat-- 

“Lucas, why don’t we leave the rest of this for some other time-- we can continue it later, come on kids it’s getting late your parents will want to be going home now--” Ambrose tried to appease them in a desperate attempt, keeping his hand rooted tightly on Lucas’s shoulder. He closed his eyes, trying to force air into his lungs, the lump growing, the dagger twisting in his heart, making him want to gasp at the pain, still so fresh and raw after all these years. 

“No-” Lucas said gruffly. He cleared his throat and sat back. “Wanted to hear a story, didn’t you all? Wanted to know about why life is sad sometimes? Why the mistakes we make have a lasting impact sometimes? You can’t leave a story in the middle of it, it’s disrespectful.” 

“Where’d she go?” The little girl that had been pestering him the most said with a small voice, looking up at him. “When did she come back?” 

He grit his teeth. “She didn’t.” 

He felt more than heard Ambrose draft a calming spell over him, and his heart finally eased some of it’s unbearable tightness. The pain did not go away, so much as his senses were dulled. It was a relief really, to live life in a constant daze of numbness--so much better than the pain that awaited him. 

\--

For how long Lucas sat there, he could not tell. He never could when Ambrose cast his calming spells. Goddess it was the only blessing left in this world. It had been hell without him here--the time he had been away on his apprenticeship had meant that Lucas had had to turn to more...mundane numbing solutions--usually found at the bottom of a bottle. Lucas snorted slightly, an idle thought drifting through his mind like a leaf drifting downstream. Twisting and turning lazily, letting his thoughts wander and stall.

“What’s so funny there, brother?” Ambrose asked softly, musing over a pipe.

“I was just thinking it was good you got back when you did my dear brother,” Lucas admitted. “Otherwise I do not think I would have any liquor left for my guests.” 

“I’m sure that’s not true…” Ambrose trailed off. Lucas shrugged slightly, shoulders heavy with sorrow and pain that could not be shaken off. 

“It is and we both know it, brother. Without her--I am nothing. You told me to try and come to terms with it while you were away and I tried--I truly did. But I am nothing. I am a shade of my former self and you know it as well as I do. I thought...I thought telling the story would help me move on...but it has done the opposite. It has only shown me how broken I am now. I--” Lucas said and choked up, a lump forming in the pit of his throat. 

“Why did I think I could do this?” he asked brokenly, bowing his head to the floor. He felt Ambrose’s arms around him and leaned against him heavily. “Goddess--what have I done?” 

And for the first time in many years, Lucas wept. 

For who knows how long, Lucas sat in his father’s chair and wept for times that were no longer. He cried for lost love and lost life--for what he was doing was not living--it was simply waiting to die. For Death to mercifully take him into the endless sleep where he would no longer feel this emptiness where once his soul had resided. 

At some point, the tears stopped coming. The sadness did not abate, but his body was no longer capable of producing tears it seemed. So Lucas hauled himself to his feet--and with his brother’s help, trudged up the stairs to his small room and laid on the bed, not bothering to do anything other than kick off his boots and wait for sleep to take him. 

After that night, the inn took on the mood of its owner--quiet and somber, not a hint of joy to be found. Word seemed to have spread and no one ever asked Lucas to weave his words. And it seemed as if Lucas no longer had any words left to weave. He hardly spoke these days, nothing more than brief nods and grunts to get his point across. He felt like he was drifting through life...maybe it was true--maybe now that he had told his legacy--he had nothing left. Nothing left to tie him to this life…

Hours blurred, days crawled. What meaning did it have? He was a word weaver who had run out of words. A fire that had lost its spark. 

The kids that had been there that night that Lucas told the story asked Ambrose what had happened to Vanessa, to Lucas-- they were at least smart enough to realize not to do it in front of Lucas… though he heard. He was in the cellar picking up the good mead and coming back upstairs when he heard them asking Ambrose. He sat on the staircase and listened to Ambrose. 

“I came back only a month later-- after Mia had left and Vanessa had sunk her claws back into Lucas fully. When I came back, I knew it all for what it was-- a spell.” Lucas closed his eyes, feeling an ocean of regret and stupidity wash over him. “Vanessa had put him under a spell for years, through a stone that was in a necklace she wore around her neck. It had the ability to warp someone’s thoughts with a single activating sentence-- and it was something they said to each other all the time, I am yours, and you are mine.” 

Lucas could feel the blood pulsing under his skin and he clenched his fingers tightly around the bottles of mead but forced himself to relax them, so they wouldn’t break in his hands. Even hearing those words made him want to vomit. 

“Then what happened?” A little boy’s voice asked. 

“I told everyone in town what she was doing because we were in the town’s square when I came back-- I grabbed her necklace and broke the stone on the ground. I took Lucas by the shoulders as he started to go slack and did a cleansing spell on him… one of the first things I learned from my master. Afterwards, he woke up from a stupor in a few hours and we had to tell him everything that had happened. He’s been in some state of sadness since then-- he lost his true love just because of a fake one. And that’s why all of you should never mess around with magic until you really know what you’re doing, until you’ve studied it for years. The witches that come to fairs and sell you tokens to make you prettier or the wizards that claim to have a magic cure-- they shouldn’t be trusted until you’re with someone who knows what they’re doing.” 

“Will Lucas ever find Mia? I want them to be together--” 

Lucas left and went back down to the cellar before he could hear more, popping open one of the bottles and drank half of it. 

\--

Two weeks later, Lucas was mechanically cleaning glasses while his group of regulars talked in hushed voices, eating the stew Lucas had prepared earlier that day. His mind was for once blissfully blank, Ambrose having agreed to cast his numbing spell on him once more. It was odd...but he had seemed more and more reluctant to use it since he had returned. Damn shame if you asked him. The door opened, though Lucas did not bother to look, what was one more patron to him? 

Until the inn went deathly silent and Lucas looked up. 

The first thing Lucas noticed were the petite brown boots. They were worn to the most smooth and supple leather Lucas had ever seen. They were well taken care of, that much was for sure, with how they gleamed a dark brown in the lantern light. Loose knit pants hugged a small frame as his gaze continued to travel up--until at the edge of the pants, he caught sight of a very familiar chainmail pattern and his heart froze in his chest.

“Heard you were still weaving words,” a voice said softly though it seemed to echo and boom in the silent room. 

Lucas forced himself to look up and dropped the glass in his hand, not noticing it shatter, scattering glass across his boots. He leaned heavily against the bar, staring at the apparition in front of. For that was all it could be--it could not be that--that--

“Mia?” he asked softly, voice hoarse and raw from misuse, emotion running thick. 

“How are you, Lucas?” she asked softly, stepping on cautious feet across the inn, almost as if she were wary of what lie beyond the trail--the look of a woman long hunted by wolves. 

“I’m--you’re--” he stammered, moving out from behind the bar on wooden legs. 

“I decided I had stayed away long enough,” she said, hiding her eyes behind her hair--and god it was as he remembered--still smelled the same way it had--but better than his dreams had told him. 

“You hurt me,” she said softly. “I was young and innocent--had never felt love like that--I didn’t understand how she was using you--didn’t understand how to fight for things I wanted. I was scared and hurt and didn’t know how to handle it other than running...because that’s all I had ever done.” 

Lucas stood up slowly, walking towards the figure, a magnetic force in his chest yanking him closer--his heart awakening after a frozen slumber.

“I was an idiot,” he said hoarsely. 

“You were a victim,” she argued and then smiled softly. “And an idiot.” 

“I--I missed you,” he said. She looked up at him and something inside of Lucas broke--or fused back together--but for the first time since she left, he felt; and he wrapped his arms around her in a hug that would last longer than the stones they stood on. 

 

The End

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this novella and would love some feedback on it :)


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